Publishing and unpublishing
On this page
A manual is a draft until you press Publish. Publishing puts it on its address, in the API and in analytics. Unpublishing takes it back off, and deletes nothing.
Published is not the same as public
What publishing changes
{slug}.json, {slug}/tokens.json and {slug}.pdf answer. An unpublished manual is a 404 there, whatever token is sent. See the API documentation (opens in a new tab).The editor, the asset library, the team, the design settings, Device preview and the PDF you download from the manual page all work the same whether the manual is published or not. You can hand somebody a PDF of a manual nobody outside the team can reach. See PDF export.
What a visitor sees while it is a draft
The address already answers, with a short page carrying the brand name: Not published yet, and under it [Brand] is still working on this brand hub. It will appear here once they publish it.
Nothing about the manual is shown: not the title, not the description, not the social image. The page asks search engines not to index it. Under the notice are Build yours free and See what it does, on every plan.
The team sees the same notice
Publishing, step by step
WhereDashboard, Brand manual
- Open the manual. The line under the title reads Draft, followed by live at and the address.
- Check the address is the one you want. Changing it later leaves the old one pointing nowhere. See Addresses.
- Read it as a visitor will, with Device preview. Sections with the Hidden badge will not be on the public page.
- Choose who may see it, under Settings and then Visibility. The default is Public.
- Press Publish.
The page is live from that moment. The line under the title reads Published followed by the visibility, the button becomes Unpublish, and Preview opens what a visitor sees. If the manual reviews changes before they go live, pressing Publish publishes everything that was waiting. See Reviewing changes before they go live. To check it worked, open the address in a browser that is not signed in. Domains (opens in a new tab) also lists every manual with its address and says which are drafts.
Hiding single sections
In the editor, a section menu offers Hide from the public page or Show on the public page, and a hidden section wears a Hidden badge. A new section is on the public page by default. A hidden section is left out of the page, the print view, the PDF, the API and the analytics, and stays in the editor. Publishing does not un-hide anything, and hiding every section does not unpublish the manual.
Who is let in once it is published
| Mode | What it means |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone can find and view it. |
| Unlisted | Only people with the link. Hidden from search. |
| Private | Not shown publicly. Team views it in the app. |
| Password protected | Public link, but a password is required. |
Password protection is part of the paid plans. Only a public manual is offered to search engines: Allow search engines (Google indexing) is shown on a public manual only, and on the other three the page reads Search engines are kept out of a page that is not public.
Changing visibility needs the right to publish
Publishing writes a version
Each publish takes a snapshot you can compare against and restore from, labeled by how it came about.
The activity log records Published or Unpublished with the title, who did it and when. See History and versions.
Unpublishing
WhereDashboard, Brand manual
Press Unpublish and the manual is a draft again. Nothing is deleted: sections, files, settings, address and version history stay as they were, and Publish puts the same page back.
- The public address serves the Not published yet notice.
- The API answers 404 on all three addresses for this manual.
- The manual drops out of the sitemap and its page asks not to be indexed, so it leaves search results when the engine next looks.
- Nothing more is counted in analytics. Earlier counts stay.
- On Domains (opens in a new tab) the manual is badged Draft and loses its Open link. The address is still shown and can still be copied.
What happens to the address
The address stays yours. A manual keeps its subdomain while it is a draft, nobody else can claim it, and it is not handed to another manual of the brand. It is freed when you clear the field yourself or delete the manual.
On a brand subdomain or a verified custom domain, the root serves the primary manual. Unpublish it and the root shows the notice, even if other manuals of that brand are published on their own paths. A non-primary manual read at /its-slug serves the same notice once it is a draft. See Addresses and Custom domains.
Who may publish
Publishing and unpublishing are one permission, Publish and unpublish. Somebody without it does not see the button at all.
| Built-in role | May publish and unpublish |
|---|---|
| Owner | Yes |
| Admin | Yes |
| Editor | Yes |
| Viewer | No |
A role you build yourself may publish if you give it that permission. See Roles and Custom roles.
Plans
Every plan publishes, on a free address, with the full manual and the API. The plan limits how many manuals you can have: 1 per brand on Free, 10 on Pro and 100 on Business, across 1, 5 and 25 brands. Password protection, an end date, your own domain and white labeling are paid. See Plans and limits.
A downgrade never takes a page down
Things that surprise people
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