Previewing and Publishing Website

Before a page on your ChurchDesk website becomes visible to visitors, it must be published.
You can edit content at any time and preview your changes – but the page will only be visible to the public once you actively publish it.
This article explains how to use the preview function and when a page actually goes online.

Preview: See what your page will look like

While editing a page in the editor, you can always check how it will appear to visitors. Here's how:

Click “Preview” in the top right corner of the editor.
Choose whether to view it on a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
In the preview, you’ll see how the page will look after publishing.

Publish your page: Make it visible to everyone

When you're happy with your page, you can publish it:

Click “Publish” in the top right corner.
Your changes are now publicly visible under the selected URL.

Important: Unless you click Publish, your edits will remain invisible to visitors. Even if saved, they are only visible to editors in the backend.

Want others to preview your page without publishing it?

You can enable the Public Preview setting to allow others – such as colleagues, clients, or external partners – to view the page without publishing it first.

Delay in publishing?

Sometimes, it may take a little longer for the page to appear online after clicking "Publish" – especially if you have added large files (like PDFs or images). These need to be processed and uploaded first.

Image appears in the editor but not on the published website?

If an image shows correctly in the editor or preview but is missing (or shows an old version) on the live website, the cause is usually your browser cache storing an outdated version of the page. The page is normally correct for your visitors. To confirm and fix this:

Hard refresh the page to reload it without cache: press Ctrl + F5 or Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows / Chrome).
Clear the browser cache if the hard refresh doesn't help: press Ctrl + Shift + Delete, select a time range (e.g. "Last 24 hours" or "All time"), tick "Cached images and files", click "Clear data", then reload the page.
Test in an incognito window (Ctrl + Shift + N), in another browser, or on your phone. If the image appears there, it was only your local browser cache and the page is correct for visitors.
Check that the page is published – saving alone is not enough, you must click "Publish". For larger image files, processing can take a few minutes.

If the image still doesn't appear in an incognito window after publishing, contact support with the link to the affected page.

Who can publish pages?

Only users with the appropriate permissions can edit and publish pages.
If you're unable to publish a page, please check your access rights or contact your administrator.
View article on permissions

Accidentally published something?

If you've published content that shouldn't be visible:

Simply edit the page again and remove the unwanted content.
In many cases, you can also use the clock icon in the top right to restore a previous version.Please note: A rollback affects all changes – including those made by other users.
You can hide individual pages from the navigation and put them back online at a later time.

Keywords: website, publish page, ChurchDesk website, preview, edit page, publishing, make changes visible, save, update website, page view, mobile preview, rollback, website permissions, delayed publishing, ChurchDesk site

Updated on: 16/10/2026

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