Previewing and sharing

Makeswift allows you to preview and share different versions of your site for enhanced collaboration and feedback. In the Visual Builder, you can create shareable links to different site versions, which you can then send to your team members or stakeholders. Share Links are powered by Site Previews, which means anyone with these links can view the shared version of your site directly on your site’s domain itself. This means that site previews can be viewed on any device, including phones and tablets. You can generate Share Links and/or Site Previews for any of the following:

• The current draft state of your site in the Visual Builder
• A particular scheduled publish
• A specific previous publish of your site

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Privacy

Shareable links are site-wide previews. This means that a recipient of a share link will be able to view the entire site as it was in the shared version. All share links expire after 5 days. After expiration, visiting the share link will result in an error, and users will no longer be able to see the shared version of the site. By default, share links can only be accessed by other members of your Makeswift workspace. To create a public share link, see the Public Share Links section.

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Sharing

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Sharing draft state

To share the draft state (the current state of your site in the Visual Builder), click on the Share button in the top right corner of the Visual Builder header. This will open a dialog that has a new shareable link generated for you. You can copy this link and share it with others.

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Sharing a scheduled publish

To share a particular scheduled publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the Scheduled tab. Hover over the scheduled publish you’d like to share and click the Share icon, which will open a dialog with a shareable link for that specific publish.

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Sharing a previous publish

To share a specific previous publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the History tab. Hover over the publish you’d like to share and click the Share icon, which will open a dialog with a shareable link for that specific publish.

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Public Share Links

By default, a share link can only be accessed by other members of your Makeswift workspace. This means that in addition to sending the share link, you may also have to invite the recipient as a guest to your workspace. If you want your share link to be accessible by anyone, you can toggle the Public preview option when creating the share link. This will allow anyone with the link to view the shared version of your site without needing to be a member of your Makeswift workspace.

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Site Preview

If you want to preview your site on your own device without generating a Share Link, you can open a Site Preview that allows you to view your site directly on your domain.

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Previewing draft state

There are two ways to preview the draft state (the current state of your site in the Visual Builder):

• Via the View page icon in the Visual Builder header
• Via the three dots menu in the Visual Builder header

To preview via the View page icon, click the open icon to the right of the address bar in the Visual Builder header. This opens your site in a new tab and shows the current draft state. To preview via the three dots menu, click the three dots in the top right corner of the Visual Builder header. From the menu, select View page.

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Previewing a scheduled publish

To preview a particular scheduled publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the Scheduled tab. Hover over the scheduled publish you’d like to preview and click the three dots, then select Preview. This opens your site in a new tab showing the scheduled publish preview.

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Previewing a previous publish

To preview a specific previous publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the History tab. Hover over the publish you’d like to preview and click the three dots, then select Preview. This opens your site in a new tab showing the previous publish preview.

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Exiting previews

Whether you opened a preview via a Share Link or via Site Preview, you’ll see that version of the site directly on your domain, even after refreshing or navigating between pages. To return to the live site:

• Click Exit preview in the bottom-right corner of the page.
• Or clear your cookies for the site to remove the preview state.

Exiting the preview returns you to the currently published live site. It does not modify your drafts, scheduled publishes, or publish history.

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Preview button (deprecated)

Makeswift allows you to share a preview link of your site with others. The preview link will always show the latest changes made in the Visual Builder, even if they have not been published. You can find the Preview button at the top right of the Visual Builder’s browser bar. We encourage you to use the preview feature to get feedback and review changes before doing a final publish.