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Every change you make to a page or an item starts as a draft. Visitors keep seeing the live page until someone publishes. So you can work in peace, show the draft around, and put it live when it’s ready, now or later. Two things skip the draft: a redirect works as soon as you save it, and Fill in business details can put filled text live at once (see Page templates). Who can do this: Contributors, Editors, Admins and Owners can edit drafts and share them. Publishing and scheduling need an Editor, an Admin or an Owner.

Before you start

  • Sign in and open the page on your site.
  • In the edit bar at the top, choose Edit.
  • Not sure if you can publish? If your button says Submit Update (or Submit on a new page) instead of Update or Publish, your changes go to an Editor for review.

Draft and live

Each page has two copies: the draft you edit and the published page visitors see. Everything you change goes into the draft. Nothing reaches visitors until it’s published. To compare the two, use the switch next to the page name in the edit bar. Choose Published to see what visitors see now, and Draft to go back to your changes.
The middle of the edit bar with the page name and the Draft / Published switch open, Draft ticked; the Update button on the right ringed.The middle of the edit bar with the page name and the Draft / Published switch open, Draft ticked; the Update button on the right ringed.

Switch between your draft and the published page.

Publish your changes

1

Check the draft

Look over the page. Use the device buttons to check it on a phone too.
2

Publish

In the edit bar, choose Update. On a page that has never been published, the button says Publish.
Your changes are live straight away. A notice confirms it: “Your changes have been published.” Changed your mind? Choose Undo Publish on that notice to put the previous version back. Publishing a page doesn’t publish the items its sections show, such as FAQs, Team Members and Testimonials. Visitors only see published ones. If you added or changed one, publish that item too:
  1. Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) and choose its list under Manage, such as FAQs.
  2. Choose the item to open its editor.
  3. Choose Publish (Update if it was live before).
See Content you reuse for each list.
The "Your changes have been published." notice with its Undo Publish button, over Parker's page.The "Your changes have been published." notice with its Undo Publish button, over Parker's page.

Undo Publish puts the previous version back.

To save without publishing, open the arrow next to Update (More save options) and choose Save Draft. You can also throw a draft away: choose More Options (⋯), then Discard Draft. It goes back to the published page.

Share a draft before it’s live

Want a colleague or a client to see your changes first? Share a link to the draft. They don’t need to sign in.
1

In the edit bar, choose Share draft

You can also find Share Draft in More Options (⋯).
2

In the Share this page window, turn on Enable draft sharing

3

Choose Copy draft link and send the link

The Share this page window with Enable draft sharing on and the Copy draft link button ringed.The Share this page window with Enable draft sharing on and the Copy draft link button ringed.

Anyone with the link can see the draft.

The Share draft button appears only when the page has changes that aren’t live yet. Anyone with the link sees the current draft, including changes you make later. Turn Enable draft sharing off to stop the link working.
While Maintenance mode is on (Site settings → Maintenance), a draft link shows your maintenance page instead of the draft. Turning maintenance mode off opens your whole site to every visitor, not just this draft, so do that only when the site is ready.
While the site isn’t ready, have the person sign in instead. They need their own account with the Contributor role or above: a Viewer sees the maintenance page too. Ask an Admin to add them in People & Roles. Once signed in, they open the page and choose Draft in the edit bar’s switch.

Send changes for review (Contributors)

Contributors can change pages but can’t publish them. Instead, they send their draft to an Editor.
1

Make your changes on the page

2

In the edit bar, choose Submit Update (on a new page, Submit)

A notice confirms: “Submitted to Admins and Editors for review.” The page stays as it was for visitors until someone publishes it.

Review submitted changes (Editors, Admins and Owners)

1

Open the command palette (⌘K, or Ctrl+K on Windows) and choose Submitted Drafts

The shortcut is T then D.
2

In Manage Submitted Drafts, open a draft to see the changes

3

If it's ready, choose Update (or Publish)

If not, choose Dismiss Submission and tell the author what to change.
Dismissing leaves the draft exactly as it is and takes it off the review list. Nothing goes live and nothing is deleted, so the author can change it and submit again.
The Manage Submitted Drafts window listing one page submitted by a Contributor.The Manage Submitted Drafts window listing one page submitted by a Contributor.

Submitted drafts wait here for an Editor.

Find what changed lately

Open the command palette and choose Recently Edited Documents (T then R). It lists every page and item changed lately, newest first, with Last Editor and Last Edited. Use Filter to narrow it down, for example to your own changes.

Schedule a publish or unpublish

Set a date and time, and the CMS puts the page live, or takes it down, for you. It’s ideal for a holiday offer that starts on Friday and ends on Monday.
1

Open the page settings window: in the edit bar, choose More Options (⋯), then Edit

For a blog post or another item, open its editor.
2

In the right-hand column, turn on Publish this document on

On a page that’s already live, it reads Update this document on.
3

Pick the date, then the time next to at

4

To take the page down later, turn on Unpublish this document on and pick a date and time

5

Check the page has exactly one Page Header or Hero at the top

A scheduled publish doesn’t check this for you.
6

Open More save options (the arrow next to the main button) and choose Save Draft

The right-hand column of the page settings window with Update this document on turned on (a Friday at 9:00 AM) and Unpublish this document on turned on (the Monday after at 11:59 PM).The right-hand column of the page settings window with Update this document on turned on (a Friday at 9:00 AM) and Unpublish this document on turned on (the Monday after at 11:59 PM).

Set when the page goes live and when it comes down.

Save it as a draft. Choosing Update or Publish puts your changes live now. To wait for the date, save a draft.

Change or cancel a schedule

Open the page settings window again. The dates you set show in the right-hand column. Change the date or time, or turn the toggle off to cancel. Then choose Save Draft from More save options.

What happens at the time

  • The page’s current draft goes live, including any edits you make before then.
  • It goes out within about a minute of the time you set.
  • The date clears itself once it has run.
  • Document Versions shows the change as made by Scheduler.
When a page is unpublished, visitors who open its address get a “page not found” page. To bring it back, publish it again. The home page can’t be unpublished, so it has no Unpublish this document on. Site settings and Cookies can’t be scheduled: their changes take effect when you publish them.

What happens next

Visitors see the new version as soon as it’s published, by hand or on schedule. Every publish is kept in the page’s history. See Document versions to look back or restore an earlier version.

Troubleshooting

Your role lets you edit but not publish. Choose Submit Update to send your changes to an Editor, or ask an Admin for an Editor role.
Only people who can publish see Publish this document on and Unpublish this document on. Ask an Editor, an Admin or an Owner to schedule it.
Publishing by hand stops when a page has no Page Header or Hero. Add one at the top of the page, then publish again. It also stops when a page has more than one of them (“This page has more than one main heading”): keep exactly one. See Add, move and remove sections.A scheduled publish skips this check, so check the heading before you schedule.
It appears only when the page has changes that aren’t live yet. Make a change first, or use More Options (⋯) → Share Draft.
In a narrower browser window the edit bar folds its buttons so nothing overlaps. Preview becomes an eye, Share draft a link, and Edit with FetchskiAI first reads FetchskiAI, then shows just the FetchskiAI mark. In a very narrow window Share draft leaves the bar: use More Options (⋯) → Share Draft. Hover any icon to see its name, or widen the window to bring the words back.On a phone the bar keeps only what you need there: undo and redo, More Options (⋯), Preview and Publish (or Edit). The page name and the device buttons step aside, the page’s status leaves while you edit, and on the smallest phones Edit with FetchskiAI moves to the FetchskiAI menu at the top of the screen.

Document versions

see and restore earlier versions.

Add, move and remove sections

build the page you’ll publish.

Preview on phones and tablets

check the draft on every screen.

What each role can do

who can edit, publish and schedule.