How do I preview my site without publishing?

[MightyGoldbreg]

[Note: The title of this post has been edited by a moderator.]

I feel like I'm missing something.  I get the WYSIWYG editor, and that's great.  It gives me a pretty accurate representation of the basic appearance of my site within the editor/designer itself.  But certain JavaScript features cannot be tested in this editor view.  For example, if I have a nested navigation menu, I can't expand the top level menu items.  If I have an image that is supposed to launch in a lightbox or a new tab, that won't work.  If I add any custom HTML or JS, that is not executed in the editor mode.  

I want to just see a "live" preview of the entire site with full functionality without actually publishing the site.  I want the site's owner to be able to confirm that these dynamic features actually work the way she expects before we go live.  That's not too much to ask from a site editor, is it?

To make things worse, the help center is really ambiguous about all of this.  There are a handful of knowledge base articles suggesting the existence of a "Preview" button in the upper right of the designer.  I see no such button.  I see only Upgrade and Publish.  For example, what's the deal with this one?

https://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/217039287-How-Do-I-Preview-a-Site-for-a-Client-

I don't have that interface at all, and the article seems to be pretty recent.  In the upper right of my editor I see only this:

And judging by the -41 helpful score for that piece, I'd say most users are similarly scratching their heads.  So, what am I missing?  How can I preview my site?  How can I generate a "preview link" that some people seem to talk about in the community?  I agree with everyone that it's silly to have a preview that expires (without the option to not do so), but...I can't even find a way to get a self-destructing preview.  What's the deal?

[capitaoericeira]

Hi,

I paid for my website two days ago and it keeps on being offline, I don´t know why. I paid a Pro Site Plan €157,08 and I have nothing. And thers´s nobody to send an email or to call to help. I don´t understand.

Could you please help me?

[Orion1]

Okay, thank you! But how do I take websites from my old account to my new, empty designer account?

[Adam7]

It wouldn't be possible to transfer sites from one account to another existing account, @Orion.  Sorry!  We can move a single site into a brand new Weebly account, though.  If you want us to do that, please submit a ticket to us here:

http://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

[School_Girl_3]

I want to privew my site because of school and I am making the site for honers. I just want to see the website and see if the Butons work. But i am having trouble finding out how. Please Help,

S. Grace

[Queso]

Hello Grace!

If you're just looking to see what a site will look like live, you can always Publish it, take a look, then Unpublish it in your Settings, near the bottom, to remove it until you're ready for it to go live for good. That way, you can be sure everything will work exactly the way you want it to.

[Riza1]

This answers my question. It's good to know that there's a way to un-publish it. Thanks!

[alanz]

The idea that the only way to see what you have is to Publish, and not have a Preview mode, is pretty lame.  I have worked in GoDaddy and Constant Contact templates, and they both have Preview modes, so you can check out if everything is there and working right before going live.  This is a major failing of your system.  You need to tell your development people to add Preview for all.

[Steve631]

Hi Adam,

That doesn't seem to be solved. Are you able to copy the site you just spent so much time to build in the free trial version and put it into the developer account that we now have to create so we don't have to rebuild it?

Steve

[Queso]

Hello Steve!

If you'd like to shift over to a Developer account, you'd want to speak with our support team directly to go over the options and start things off. You can also sign up as a Designer initially, without any fee.

And just to clarify a bit, the Solved tag is up to the original poster. You're always free to ask follow-up questions regardless.

[megg]

I am on the designer platform. Where do you click to preview? I only see the big blue button 'Publish' in the top right corner. Thank you for your help!

[Adam7]

Is the site already published, @megg? The preview button only shows while the site is in developement. Once you go live with it there's only the publish button.

[megg]

Thank you for your super quick reply. Yes, beta is published. However, website usually go through many iterations so that's unfortunate if preview disappeared. I need to make major design changes with multiple new graphics so I'm trying to figure out how to send a page layout to the client for approval before publishing it.

[Adam7]

Hmm... You could probably make a copy and make changes to that, then generate a preview URL from the copy. You'd have to recreate your changes on the original site, but that would at least let you show them what it looks like.

[GhostInspectors]

You can still publish for quick review without anyone accidently seeing the site then unpublish. Go to settings - SEO - Hide site from search engines (check ON) then publish and unpublish all you want.

[riebackdavid]

Hello, as someone that uses the designer side and the stand alone account I have to say I am extremely frustrated.

When I have a client who wants full control over their site, or comes to me with a site they started and want me to finish and fix it... I want to preview that site before it goes live.  For example, I have a client right now that has a site up. I am designing a new one for him in his account. I don't want to "publish it" just to see if buttons etc work. In fact, I cannot publish it without taking down the old original site that is up now, redirecting the A record, wait, check the temp published site, then unpublish, redirect the A record back to the old site... do you see where I am going with this? It is a waste of time and time is money in this industry.

Please provide a way to preview without publishing.

On the designer's platform, it is sad that I do not have access to all the ad on apps like in the standalone version of Weebly.  Please work on offering these apps to us like Wordpress offers plugins.

Thanks

[Adam7]

This is something we're working on, actually:

https://community.weebly.com/t5/Vote-on-Features/Preview-pages/idi-p/30710

I don't have an ETA on when that would be completed, but we'll likely make a post to our blog about it when we do:

http://www.weebly.com/blog

[solalliance]

Any update on when this feature will be available?

[Adam7]

Not yet, @solalliance. Sorry I don't have an update! We'll likely make a blog post to our blog when we do, though.

[migs]

The best solution I have found for this is to go into your 'theme' tab and then click on edit HTML/CSS. Down in the bottom right hand corner you will see the 'pop out' icon - click on this.

From there, you can then have a full preview of your sight without yet publishing it.

Hope this helps.

[larsontw16]

I entirely agree with Migs. Although the option isn't readily available on desktop you can preview the site in the Edit HTML/CSS location. 

Or simply Publish, look at the site live, then Un-Publish. Odds are VERY slim in those 30 seconds anyone gains access to the site.

[sollah]

As of 4/7/2017 The 'theme' tab / edit HTML/CSS / bottom right hand corner 'pop out' icon doesn't work. It did in the past. When will this be fixed?