This article explains how to rework a live page in a new version, without touching the one your visitors see. You will learn to create it, write it, publish it or abandon it.
Before you start
Publishing the site sends online everything that is published in Staging. When you save a published content, your text immediately replaces the published text in Staging. The next site publication puts it online, even if a colleague publishes for something else.
A new version is a working copy of the content. You save it as many times as needed and the published content does not change. When it is ready, you publish it and it takes the place of the published content.
- A new version is created for a page, a post, an entry of one of your content types, a term or a legal document.
- Compositions and templates have no new version.
- A content has only one new version at a time.
- A legal document whose Staging text is waiting for the next site publication is edited without a new version until that publication.
- An AI connected to your site does not write in a new version and does not publish it.
Create a new version
The new version takes over all the published content: its text, its images, its fields, its references, its featured media and its SEO settings.
If the content has a new version, the action becomes Open the new version. In the editor of the published content, a notice says so with the same button.
From the content list
- In the list of your pages or of a content type, hover over a published content.
- Under its title, click Create a new version. The new version opens in the editor.
From the editor
- Open a published content in the editor. A notice reminds you that your changes will go online at the next site publication.
- In this notice, click Create a new version. The new version opens in the editor.
You can close this notice. It does not come back for this content in this browser.
Write the new version
At the top of the editor, a notice names the content whose new version you are writing. Its button Open the published content leads to the original. The two buttons of the editor change names.
| Button | Effect |
|---|---|
| Save the new version | Saves your work. The message New version saved. appears. The published content does not change, in Staging or in Production. |
| Publish the new version | Puts the new version in place of the published content in Staging. |
To see the new version as it will be, open the editor preview. It shows in its template, with the site’s header and footer. On Staging, the published content stays displayed.
In the content list, the New version view gathers your new versions in progress.
Publish the new version
- In the editor of the new version, click Publish the new version. The editor opens on the updated published content.
- To put this change online, publish your site.
| Replaced by the new version | Kept from the published content |
|---|---|
| The title, the text and the excerpt | Its address and its place in the page hierarchy |
| The fields and the references | Its date and its author |
| The featured media and the SEO settings | Its language and its translations |
| The terms it is classified under | The links that lead to it on the site |
To go back after publishing, open the revisions of the content: the earlier state is kept there.
Handle a published content modified in the meantime
If someone modifies the published content after your new version was created, publishing it would erase their change. The editor then blocks the publication and shows The published content has been modified since this new version was created.
- To see what changed, click See the revisions of the published content.
- To keep those changes, carry them over into your new version.
- Click Publish anyway. The new version replaces the published content.
Nothing is merged for you.
Abandon a new version
Move the new version to the Trash. The published content keeps no trace of it.
You can restore it from the Trash as long as its published content exists, is not in the Trash and has not received another new version.
If you move the published content to the Trash, its new version goes with it. It comes back with it if you restore it.
Spot new versions before publishing the site
The Publish website to production screen lists your new versions in progress under the label New version. Each one shows the name of the last person who saved it and a Preview link. They do not go online. For one of them to go out with this publication, publish it before publishing the site.