Who may see a manual

On this page

Each published manual has one of 4 visibility modes. The mode decides who can open the page and whether search engines may list it. You can also set an end date, after which the page says the manual is closed.

The four options

WhereDashboard, Brand manual, Settings, Visibility

The card is called Visibility, with the line Who can see the published page. under its title.

Mode	The hint in the app	Who reaches the page	Search engines
Public	Anyone can find and view it.	Anyone who has the address, or who finds it.	Indexed, unless you clear the checkbox.
Unlisted	Only people with the link. Hidden from search.	Anyone who has the address.	Never indexed, and left out of the sitemap.
Private	Not shown publicly. Team views it in the app.	Signed in team members who may read the manual.	Never indexed.
Password protected	Public link, but a password is required.	Anyone who has the address and the password.	Never indexed.

The mode belongs to the manual, not to the brand. One brand can keep its main manual public and a campaign manual behind a password at the same time.

None of this applies to a draft

Until a manual is published, its address shows a notice saying the brand is still working on this brand hub, whatever the mode says. See Publishing and unpublishing.

Changing it

Open the manual and switch to the Settings tab on Brand manual (opens in a new tab).
Go to Visibility and pick one of the four.
If you picked Password protected, type a password in the field that appears.
Save the settings. The public page follows at once.

Changing the mode needs the publish permission

Opening the settings needs Edit sections and content. Changing the visibility, setting a password or turning indexing off also needs Publish and unpublish. A save that touches only the design or the SEO fields does not. See Roles.

Private, and how the team still reads it

Not shown publicly. Team views it in the app. A visitor who is not on the team gets a gate reading Private, a line saying the brand keeps this brand hub private, and one button, Sign in to view.

Press Sign in to view and you are asked to sign in, then sent back to the page. Access lasts 2 hours for that one manual, then you press the button again. While it lasts, a dark bar at the top of the page says the manual is private and that you can see it because you are on the team.

Your role must carry View the brand manual. Being on the team is not enough on its own: a custom role can be built without it, and then you land on the dashboard instead. Somebody removed from the brand loses the page at once.

A team member is not a reader

Views of a private manual are not counted at all, and a team member looking at their own private page is not counted as a visitor. See What visitors did.

Password protected

Public link, but a password is required. Choosing it reveals a Password field, with the hint Visitors must enter this password to view the page. Once one is set the label reads (set, leave blank to keep), and you leave the field empty unless you want to change it. Saving this mode with no password stored and the field blank is refused with Choose a password to protect this manual.

Once saved, the password cannot be read back, by you or by support, so keep a note of it. It is one password shared by everybody you send the link to: there is no account, no name and no way to lock out one person.

What the reader gets

A gate reading Protected, the manual's title, and Enter the password to view this brand hub.
One field and a View button. A wrong answer comes back with That password is not right. Please try again.
A right answer keeps that reader signed in to that one manual for a month, so they do not type the password on every visit.

Changing the password locks everybody out

Change the password, or switch the manual to another mode, and everyone who was already through the gate has to enter the new password. Switching away from Password protected also deletes the stored password, so coming back to it means choosing a new one.

Wrong passwords

The gate counts wrong answers and makes the next attempt wait.

5 wrong answers

Allowed with no wait.

Then 30 seconds

The wait doubles with each further wrong answer, up to 15 minutes.

15 minutes quiet

The count is forgotten.

While a wait is running, the field and the button are disabled and the gate says how many seconds are left.

What search engines are told

A manual is listed in search engines only when it is Public and indexing has not been turned off for it. Allow search engines (Google indexing) is shown only on a public manual. On the other three modes it is replaced by the line Search engines are kept out of a page that is not public.

The sitemap a brand serves lists only manuals that may be indexed and are not past their end date.
A hidden page gives up its title. A private, password protected or closed manual shows only the brand name to search engines and to link previews: no title, no description, no social image.
An unlisted page keeps them. Its title, description and social image are still there, so a link to it previews properly when somebody pastes it into a chat. If the title itself is the secret, use a password instead.

The title, description and social image are set in Search engines and the head of a page.

The end date

WhereDashboard, Brand manual, Settings, Visibility, Available until

Available until (optional) is a date field under the four modes, and it works with any of them. Pick a day and the manual stays available through the whole of that day. Clear the field and the page stays up. The hint reads After this day the page says the manual is no longer available. Clear the date to keep it up.

After the date, the address keeps answering:

The page shows the manual's logo or favicon, then This manual is no longer available and one line saying the brand has closed this brand hub. Nothing about what the manual held.
The manual drops out of the sitemap and cannot be indexed.
Nothing is deleted. Clear the date and the manual is back online exactly as it was.

The order of the gates

A private manual is checked first, then the end date, then the password. A signed out visitor to a closed private manual still sees the private gate, and a closed password protected manual shows the notice without asking for a password.

Which plan each one needs

Public, Unlisted and Private are on every plan, Free included. Password protected and the end date under the four modes are not; the table says which plan has them.

	Free	Pro	Business
Password-protected pages	Not included	Included	Included
Manuals with an end date	Not included	Not included	Included

Without the plan, the Password protected option is shown with a Pro badge and cannot be picked. A save that tries anyway is refused with Password protected pages are part of Pro and Business. The date field is disabled with the line Manuals with an end date are part of Business.

A downgrade does not open a locked page

A manual that already has a password keeps it, keeps the option selectable, and keeps working after a downgrade. A date already set keeps working too, and clearing it is always allowed. See What a downgrade freezes and What each plan includes.

Details worth knowing

Duplicating

A copy of a password protected manual is created as Private rather than carrying the password over, and like every duplicate it starts unpublished.

The PDF link

The published page offers a PDF only on a public or unlisted manual. See The manual as a PDF.

The API

The API answers a public or unlisted manual without a token. A private or password protected one needs an API token, and a token reads every manual of its brand, private ones included: it is the key to the whole brand, not to one page. Tokens are made on the API page. See Authentication in the API documentation.

Where the mode shows

A published manual's card names its mode instead of Draft, and the list of addresses badges anything that is not public.

Review before publishing

A different setting in the same card. It changes when edits reach the page, not who may see it. See Reviewing changes before they go live.

In the history

Saves are recorded as Visibility, Search engine indexing and Available until, each with its old and new value. See Activity, versions and restoring.

Where to go next

Publishing for putting the manual online and taking it down again.
Addresses for which host and path a manual answers on, and Using your own domain for putting it on your own.
What a reader can do on a published page for what is on the other side of the gate.
Roles for who on the team may change any of this.

PreviousUsing your own domain NextSearch engines and the head of a page

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