Picture this: you‘re working hard on refining an important page on your WordPress site. You‘ve made a lot of changes, but you‘re not quite ready to publish them yet. You need a way to save your work without accidentally overwriting the current live version.
We‘ve all been there. Fortunately, WordPress has your back.
In this complete guide, we‘ll dive deep into how to save changes in WordPress without publishing. From drafting and revisions to scheduling and more, you‘ll learn all the tips and best practices you need to confidently manage your content creation process.
Why Save Changes in WordPress Without Publishing?
Before we get into the step-by-step details, let‘s talk about why you might want to save changes without publishing. Here are a few key reasons:
Drafting and editing: Sometimes you need to make significant changes to a published post or page, but you don‘t want to disrupt the live content until your edits are polished and ready. Saving draft changes allows you to work on your content over multiple sessions without publishing prematurely.
Collaboration and review: If you‘re working with a team, you might need to have your changes reviewed and approved by an editor before publishing. Saving drafts makes it easy to collaborate on content without affecting the live version.
Scheduling future updates: You can save changes with a future publish date to automatically update your content at a specific time. This is great for planning ahead and keeping your site fresh.
In fact, WordPress is used by over 40% of all websites, and roughly 70 million new posts are created each month (source). That‘s a lot of content being drafted, reviewed, and published!
Being able to effectively manage this process is crucial for anyone working with WordPress, whether you‘re a solo blogger, a content manager for an organization, or a developer building sites for clients.
How to Save Changes as a Draft in the WordPress Block Editor
Saving changes as a draft is the simplest way to work on published content without pushing your edits live. Here‘s how to do it using the WordPress block editor (a.k.a. Gutenberg):
Open the post or page you want to edit. You can do this from the Posts or Pages menu in your WordPress dashboard.
Make your desired changes to the content. As you edit, WordPress will automatically save your changes in the background, but don‘t worry – they won‘t be published yet.
In the Document tab of the Settings sidebar, look for the Status & visibility section. Click on the link that says "Published" (or "Published on [date]" for older posts/pages).
In the dropdown menu that appears, select "Draft." This will change the status of your post from "Published" to "Draft" without updating the live content.
Continue editing and saving your changes as needed. WordPress will automatically save your drafts every few seconds.
When you‘re ready to publish your changes, head back to the Status & visibility section and change the status back to "Published." Then click the "Update" button to push your changes live.
Here‘s a visual of what this process looks like:
[Include screenshot of changing post status to draft in block editor]Using drafts is a straightforward way to save changes without immediately overwriting your published content.
One important thing to note: while a post or page is in draft mode, it will not be publicly accessible to your visitors. If someone tries to access the URL directly, they‘ll see a 404 error page.
So drafts are best used for short-term editing. If you need to work on changes over a longer period while keeping the original content available to visitors, you might want to use a plugin like Duplicate Post or Revisionize. More on those in a bit!
Understanding WordPress Revisions
In addition to saving manual drafts, WordPress automatically saves revisions of your content every time you hit the "Update" or "Publish" button.
Revisions are essentially snapshots of your content at a specific point in time. They allow you to track changes and revert to a previous version if needed.
You can view a post or page‘s revisions by clicking the "Revisions" link in the Publish box:
[Include screenshot of Revisions link]This will bring up a screen showing all the saved revisions for that content, with the differences between each version highlighted:
[Include screenshot of viewing revisions]A few key things to know about WordPress revisions:
- By default, WordPress stores an unlimited number of revisions for each post or page (though this can be limited by your hosting provider).
- Revisions are stored in your WordPress database alongside the main content. This means they can add up over time and potentially impact your site‘s performance if not managed properly.
- You can access revisions for any previously published version of a post or page, not just the latest draft.
In most cases, you probably won‘t need to manually interact with revisions. But it‘s good to know they‘re there as a backup if you ever need to revert changes or compare older versions of your content.
If you want to limit or disable revisions to conserve database space, you can do so by adding the following line to your wp-config.php file:
define( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS‘, 3 );This would limit WordPress to storing the last 3 revisions for each post or page. Setting the value to false would disable revisions entirely:
define( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS‘, false );Just be cautious when limiting or disabling revisions, as they can be a lifesaver if you accidentally delete content or need to revert to an earlier draft.
Using Plugins to Save Changes Without Publishing
If you find yourself frequently needing to make significant edits to published posts or pages, a plugin can streamline the process and give you more control.
Two of the most popular options are Duplicate Post and Revisionize. Let‘s take a closer look at each.
Duplicate Post
Duplicate Post is a free plugin that lets you create a clone of any post, page, or custom post type with a single click. The duplicate is saved as a draft that you can edit separately from the original.
Some key features of Duplicate Post:
- Create a duplicate with the click of a button in the post list or edit screen
- Choose whether to copy the original content‘s title, slug, excerpt, featured image, and more
- Set default settings for duplicates, like their status (draft, pending, published, etc.) and suffix
- Duplication works for pages, posts, and custom post types
Duplicate Post is used on over 3 million WordPress sites (source), making it one of the most popular tools for content management.
To use Duplicate Post:
- Install and activate the free plugin from the WordPress plugin repository
- Navigate to the post or page you want to duplicate
- Click the "Clone" link in the post list, or the "Duplicate Post" button on the edit screen:
- The duplicate will be created as a draft and opened in the editor
- Edit the duplicate as needed, saving changes regularly
- When you‘re ready to overwrite the original content, click the "Republish" button that Duplicate Post adds to the Publish box
One neat thing about Duplicate Post is that it copies all the original post‘s settings by default, like the excerpt, featured image, categories, tags, and custom fields. This saves you from having to recreate these elements from scratch.
The pro version of the plugin also supports duplicating multiple posts at once, post metadata, comments, and more.
Revisionize
Revisionize is another helpful free plugin for managing WordPress content updates. It allows you to create "working copies" of any published post or page, then merge your changes back when you‘re ready.
Some standout features of Revisionize:
- Create a draft copy of a published post or page with one click
- Work on the draft independently of the original published version
- Automatically keeps the original content published while you‘re making changes
- Preserve revision history between the original and draft versions
Like Duplicate Post, Revisionize is also widely used, with over 20,000 active installations (source).
Here‘s how to use it:
- Install and activate the free Revisionize plugin
- Open the post or page you want to edit in the WordPress editor
- In the Publish box, click the "Revisionize" link:
- Revisionize will create a draft copy of your post and open it in the editor
- Make your desired changes to the draft version, saving as you go
- When finished, click the "Publish" button to merge your changes back to the original post
One advantage of Revisionize‘s approach is that the original post remains published the entire time you‘re editing the working copy. Visitors will continue to see the current public version until you manually publish the revision.
Revisionize also makes it easy to manage multiple revisions of the same post by adding them to a "Revisions" box in the editor sidebar:
[Include screenshot of Revisionize revisions box]From there, you can view and compare different revisions, delete old ones, or publish a previous revision to revert the post.
Plugins like Duplicate Post and Revisionize are valuable tools for anyone who regularly needs to update published content in WordPress. They give you more flexibility and control than the built-in drafts and revisions.
Scheduling WordPress Posts for Future Publication
In addition to saving draft changes, WordPress also allows you to schedule posts and pages to be published automatically at a future date and time.
This is useful for planning content in advance, such as:
- Publishing a time-sensitive announcement at a specific moment
- Drip-feeding content to your audience on a set schedule
- Coordinating content releases across multiple authors or channels
- Automatically updating seasonal or recurring content
To schedule a post in WordPress:
- Edit the post as usual, making any desired changes
- In the Status & visibility section of the Settings sidebar, click the link next to "Publish immediately"
- Choose the future date and time you want the post to go live
- Click "Schedule" (or "Update" if editing an existing post)
Once scheduled, your post will be published automatically at the specified date and time, without any further action needed from you.
You can view and manage all your scheduled posts from the "Scheduled" view in the Posts menu:
[Include screenshot of scheduled posts view]A few tips for effective post scheduling:
- Be mindful of your timezone settings (in Settings > General) to ensure posts are published at the intended time for your audience
- Double-check your scheduled dates and times to avoid accidentally publishing too early or too late
- Use an editorial calendar plugin like PublishPress to get a bird‘s eye view of your scheduled content and manage your publishing workflow
- Set reminders for yourself to promote scheduled content once it goes live, such as via social media or email newsletters
Post scheduling is a powerful feature that can help you stay organized, consistent, and strategic with your WordPress content publishing.
Best Practices for Managing WordPress Content Updates
We‘ve covered a lot of different tools and techniques for saving changes in WordPress without publishing. To wrap up, here are some general best practices to keep in mind:
Use descriptive titles and slugs for drafts: Make it easy to identify and organize your in-progress content by using clear, specific titles and slugs. For example, append "-draft" or the revision date to the title.
Leverage post comments for collaboration: If multiple authors or editors are working on a post, use the built-in comments feature in the WordPress editor to leave notes and feedback for each other.
Periodically audit and clean up old drafts and revisions: Over time, unused drafts and revisions can accumulate and clutter up your WordPress database. Regularly delete outdated versions to keep things tidy and reduce database bloat.
Implement version control for custom code and templates: If you‘re making changes to your theme files or custom plugin code, use a version control system like Git to track changes and safely test updates before deploying to production.
Communicate scheduled content to stakeholders: If you have posts or pages scheduled for future publication, make sure to let relevant team members and stakeholders know the timeline. This helps everyone stay aligned and avoids confusion.
Test significant content changes before publishing: For major updates to important pages or posts, consider saving a draft and testing it thoroughly before pushing live. You can use the "Preview" button in the WordPress editor to view the draft version as it would appear to visitors.
By developing a system and following these best practices consistently, you can streamline your content workflow, reduce errors, and publish with confidence.
Wrapping Up
Saving changes in WordPress without publishing is an essential skill for managing a successful website. Whether you‘re drafting updates to existing content, collaborating with team members, or scheduling future posts, WordPress provides a range of tools to help you work efficiently and publish strategically.
Built-in features like drafts and revisions are the foundation for saving non-published changes. Plugins like Duplicate Post and Revisionize add even more flexibility for complex content workflows. And don‘t forget about the power of post scheduling for planning your content calendar in advance.
With the knowledge and best practices from this guide, you‘re well-equipped to handle all kinds of WordPress content updates smoothly and effectively.
Remember, your website is a living, breathing reflection of your brand or business. Approach content updates thoughtfully, test changes thoroughly, and always keep your audience‘s needs and expectations in mind.
Now go forth and draft, revise, schedule, and publish with confidence! Your WordPress website will thank you.
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