Preview and share draft pages

Once you've saved a draft of your page you can:

• preview your page
• create and share a preview link for others to review and approve.

(Previously all previewers had to log in to the CMS to preview pages.)

Benefits of the 'share preview' link

• Your reviewers don't need to log in to the CMS to access the preview.
• You can set an expiry date for the share preview link.
• You can delete the share preview link.
• You can share preview links for multiple versions of your page.

Which preview option to choose?

1. To preview a page in the CMS while you're working (logged in), use the first link.
2. To create a link that others can access without logging in, use the second link (button).

Note: The Preview link can be unstable at times. On your first attempt, you may get a 404 error. If this happens, try clicking the preview link again.

How to preview in the CMS

If your page has been published before

You'll get the option to preview your content once the draft has been saved. This will appear at the top of the content page. Select Click here to Preview Content.

If your page hasn't been published

You'll need to log in to preview your content. Once you've created and saved a new draft, you'll get an option to preview your content on your chosen primary site.

• Select your preferred primary site.
• You'll then receive a login prompt.
• Add your CMS login and password.

How to create a 'share preview' link

There are 2 options for creating a 'share preview' link, depending on whether the page you want to share has been published previously or not.

Sharing a new (never published) page

When you save a draft of a new page, you will be taken to the View tab. Select the +Create a share preview link button.

A share link will be created and you'll be taken to the View share link tab. Copy this link and email it to your stakeholders. This share link will automatically expire in 30 days.

This link will always display the latest draft of the content (not the state of the content at the point in time you created the share link). For example, you create the share link at 9am but then continue editing your page and saving later drafts. If your manager clicks on the share link at 11am, they will see the latest version of the page with the edits you have saved up until 11am.

If you want to create a share link for a particular draft or point in time, you can do this in the Revisions tab. See 'Managing multiple share links' below.

Sharing an updated draft of a currently published page

If you're editing a page that has already been published previously, when you click Save you'll be taken to the Latest updates tab. Go to the Revisions tab, find the latest saved version of the page that you want to show to someone, and click the button to the right of it that will either say 'Create a share preview link' or have an arrow that you can click to find that option.

A share link will be created and you'll be taken to the View share link tab. Copy this link and email it to your stakeholders. This share link will automatically expire in 30 days.

Edit the share preview link

In the Share links tab you can:

• add a specific name for the share preview link
• set a different expiry date for the link
• delete links.

Edit the link name

Click the Edit button next to the link you'd like to update.

The Name field allows you to edit the CMS-given name for the preview link. By default it includes the page title, the page’s node number and the CMS username of the person sharing the link. For example: 'Share Landing Page "A sample page showing standard content components" (15514) by joanna.tayler'.

You might want to edit a share link name if you are creating multiple share links for a single page, such as naming one the 'current draft' and another a 'previous version'. In this case, it could be helpful to put the date and time of the edits as well. In the Share links tab, the Node column provides a revision number as well.

Edit the expiry date

When you share a preview link it automatically expires after a set amount of time. You can change the time limit by updating these date and time fields.

Delete a Share preview link

You can choose to delete particular links within the Share links tab. In the right-hand column next to a link, click on the arrow to the right of the Edit button and choose Delete. You'll be asked 'Are you sure?' and need to click the Delete button.

Managing multiple share preview links

You might want to create multiple share links to show the evolution of a page over time.

If you want your share links to display the page's content at a particular point in time, go to the Revisions tab and create share links for a specific revision (such as an older draft or a current draft that hasn't been published yet). You can view the revision by clicking on the date and time link on the left. To create a share link for a particular revision, use the button on the right – you'll either need to click on the down arrow for older revisions or just click the button for the latest revision, as shown below.

In this example below, I created share links for all the revisions that have been made of this page, and this is how the Share links tab looks. The ones created from a revision have 2 numbers in the Name column (the node number of the page, and individual revision number) and the revision number also appears in the Node column.