Publishing and previews
Preview a page, publish it, update or unpublish it, set its status, password and homepage, and share a draft with someone who cannot sign in.
On this page
A new page is a draft. Only people who can edit the site see it. Publishing makes it visible at its address.
A page has one status, set in Page settings:
- Draft: not visible to visitors.
- Publish: visible at its address.
- Private: not visible to visitors.
- Trash: removed from the site.
Visitors who open a page that is not published see "Page not found".
Preview a page
- In the page builder, press Preview.
- The page saves, then opens in a new tab as visitors will see it.
To see the live rendering while you edit, press the live preview button in the top bar. Press it again to go back to editing.
Publish a page
- Press Publish at the top right. The Publish Page dialog opens.
- Check Page URL. Use only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. Changing it breaks links to the old address, and the dialog warns you.
- Press Publish.
The button now reads Published, and a message gives the live address.
Change a published page
On a published page, Save makes your changes live. Visitors see them on their next visit. Preview before you save when the change matters.
The Published button opens the Update Published Page dialog. Use it to change the address: edit Page URL, then press Update.
Unpublish a page
- Press Published.
- Press Move to Draft.
The page is no longer visible to visitors.
Make a page the homepage
The homepage is what visitors see at the site's main address. Only a published page can be the homepage. Use one of these:
- In Page settings, turn on Homepage, then press Save Settings.
- On the Pages screen, open the page's row menu and choose Set as homepage.
- In Settings, on the General or Reading tab, choose a page in Site homepage.
Hide a page behind a password
In Page settings, type a password in Password Protection, then press Save Settings. While a password is set, the page is not shown to any visitor: it answers "Page not found", and it is left out of the site's feed. NextPress has no screen where visitors enter the password. Leave the field empty to show the page again.
Share a draft with someone who cannot sign in
A preview link shows a draft without signing in. The editor has no button for it. Create one with the SDK or the MCP server:
- SDK:
preview.createShareToken. The link lasts 5 minutes unless you choose a time, up to 1 hour. - MCP:
preview_pageorpreview_post. The link lasts 1 hour unless the agent chooses a shorter time.
The API key needs the preview:write permission and read access to the page or post. Anyone with the link can read the draft until it expires.
Next steps
- Page builder basics.
- SDK to create preview links.
- Troubleshooting if a published page does not show.