Improvement to the Way Content Is Previewed

Just a quick note to let you know about a minor improvement that will hopefully save you a little time and make the creation of content easier. We’ve added the ability to preview some content where you previously didn’t have that choice.

You’ve always had the ability to preview a blog post before publishing it. However, doing so took you out of the writing flow. The system would save a draft and open your preview in a new window. It also then forced you to click a link to come back to your draft after previewing to keep writing, which meant another save and load of a new window. This could be a laborious process if you needed to preview a blog multiple times before actually publishing it.

To help streamline this, we’ve changed the way the Preview button works. Now, it immediately opens your blog preview in a new, separate window. Your current blog draft will stay open in its own window, and you can continue working on your draft at any time. While this is not a radical change, it will probably save a lot of time over time.

We’ve added this functionality to forum discussion posts, too. Previously, forum discussions did not have any preview possibilities, forcing you to edit a post after publishing. Now, if you need to make an important announcement but want to see what it will look like before it’s live for everyone, you can. Also, you'll be able to preview in Group forums, too.

Again, this isn’t a massive change, but a simple one that we hope will make life a little easier and save a few moments along the way.

Tags: new product

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Hysen on October 23, 2011 at 12:58pm

Excellent. Nice update.

Permalink Reply by Brian on November 10, 2011 at 3:18am

I wish there was a way to "save" (for later editing) as well as "preview". I've started a blog or another forum post, only to be interrupted. Or maybe I wanted to think about something and return to it later. There's no way to save it and return later for editing (like a google blog post).

Brian

Permalink Reply by Eric Suesz on November 10, 2011 at 10:42am

Hey, Brian. There is a "Save as Draft" button for Blog posts, although not for discussions.

Permalink Reply by Rev. O.M. Bastet on November 10, 2011 at 12:49pm

Based on my experience, the preview is not always accurate. Especially with respect to number of spaces between paragraphs. Since it is not ALWAYS accurate, it is useless to me. i just ignore it now. I spent half an hour fussing with it one time, and scrapped it.

It would be nice, if it worked.

Permalink Reply by Kathleen (SunKat) on November 10, 2011 at 1:13pm

@ Eric Suesz - the preview feature on my community is now working. I submitted a help request and at about that time it started working. However the person who took a look at it claimed everything appeared to be in order. So long as it works :D

I have to agree with Rev. O.M. Bastet though, the preview is not always accurate with spacing - especially when it comes to uploaded photos being inserted alongside the text. I simply edit the discussion after I post it. While not really a problem for me I do wonder why the discrepancy.

Permalink Reply by Eric Suesz on November 10, 2011 at 1:32pm

Great!

Sorry if the preview isn't working perfectly for you. One reason I use the preview is to make sure I have configured the details correctly. Sometimes, I write in HTML. Sometimes, that HTML isn't perfectly formed, which might be my mistake, frankly. I use the preview to spot those discrepancies. Also note that different browsers deal with HTML differently, so there is always the possibility that little details may seem different. The Web is a lot different than print in that respect.