Collaborate on a page

Need several people to contribute to a page before you publish it? The collaborative drafts feature allows multiple people permission to edit a page while keeping it in draft mode. The page owner can give permission for specific people to collaborate on the page, while keeping it hidden from a wider audience.

Collaborative drafts don’t allow multiple people to edit a document simultaneously. While multiple collaborators have permission to edit a draft, only one collaborator at a time can edit the page. This prevents changes from being lost or overwritten if multiple people try to edit a page at the same time.

When you put an existing page in draft mode, it is hidden. There is no live version available to users on the intranet. Until the page is taken out of draft mode, it is only visible to the page owner, any added collaborators, and admins that can view all content.

How to create a draft page

1. Navigate to the location where you want to create the page.
2. Click Add to create a new page.
3. Click the Draft toggle to turn draft mode on.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Continue editing or save the page.

Before Draft mode is turned on, there is a button to Publish the page. When you turn on Draft mode, the Publish button changes to a Save button. When you create a new draft page, a message also shows below the draft toggle in edit mode, indicating that only you can view the page.

When you save a draft page, you will see a Draft banner across the top of the page header. The word Draft will appear by the page title in navigation on the intranet. Of course, the draft page will only show for the page owner and collaborators who have permission to see it.

To allow other people to collaborate on the draft page, see Add collaborators.

If a page editor (not the page owner) turns draft mode on, they will automatically be added as a collaborator with publish permission. This is so the page editor will still be able to access the page once it is in draft mode.

How to put an existing page in draft mode

You can put a page in draft mode to make edits to it before publishing the new version for page viewers again. Keep in mind that when you put a page in draft mode, it is hidden from anyone who is not a collaborator on the draft. There is no “live” version of the page while you are working on the draft.

When you put a page in draft mode, any subpages of that page will also be put in draft mode.

1. Navigate to the page that you want to put in draft mode.
2. Go into edit mode on the page.
3. Click the Draft toggle to turn draft mode on.
4. Save the page.

Add collaborators

To allow other users to make edits to a draft page, add them as draft collaborators. The page must be in draft mode before you can add collaborators. You can also add security groups as collaborators. This allows all members of a security group to collaborate on the page.

When someone is added as a collaborator on a page, either individually or as part of a security group, they will receive in-app and email notifications that they have been added as a collaborator on the page.

To add collaborators:

1. Create a draft page, or navigate to the draft page that you want to collaborate with others on.
2. Go into edit mode on the page.
3. Click Add collaborators. The Collaborators pop-up window will appear.
4. In the Enter names box, start typing the name of a person or security group that you want to add as a collaborator, and click on the name in the menu when it appears. To add more collaborators, repeat this step.
5. If you want to add all page editors as collaborators, click Add all editors at the bottom of the box.
6. Click Done at the bottom of the box.
7. Continuing editing or click Save.

When you add collaborators to a draft page, the draft banner that shows when you view the draft page will show that there are collaborators on the page by displaying their profile photos in the banner.

Default restrictions on collaborators

When a draft collaborator does not have permission to publish a draft page, there are certain actions they cannot take:

• Collaborators cannot change the page owner.
• Collaborators cannot modify the list of collaborators on a draft page.
• Collaborators cannot take a page out of draft mode and publish it unless they are specifically given permission to do so.

Who can publish a draft page and modify the collaborators list?

By default, only the page owner has the ability to publish a draft page. To give another collaborator permission to publish a draft page, turn on the Can Publish toggle beside their name in the Collaborators pop-up window. When a collaborator is given permission to publish a draft page, they can also modify the list of collaborators. However, they cannot remove the page owner or themselves from the list of collaborators.

Add all editors as collaborators

1. Create or go into edit mode on the draft page.
2. Click Add collaborators.
3. In the Collaborators pop-up window, click Add all editors near the bottom. You will see that all page editors have been added to the list of collaborators in the window.
4. Click Done at the bottom of the Collaborators window.
5. Save the page.

Remove collaborators

To remove one or more collaborators:

1. Go into edit mode on the draft page.
2. Click the edit icon beside Collaborators under the Save button.
3. In the Collaborators window, click the X beside the name of the collaborator that you want to remove. Repeat to remove more collaborators.
4. Click Done at the bottom of the Collaborators window.
5. Save the page.

To remove all collaborators on the draft page:

1. Go into edit mode on the draft page.
2. Click the garbage can icon beside Collaborators under the Save button.
3. In the Delete collaborators window, click Delete to confirm that you want to remove all of the collaborators.
4. Save the page.

Keep a draft page private

Draft mode replaces the previous "private page" feature that existed in ThoughtFarmer. To create a private draft in version 11.4+, create a draft page and simply don’t add any other collaborators. Only you as the page owner will be able to see the page until you turn off draft mode and publish the page.

Keep in mind that intranet administrators who can view and edit all content are able to see even private draft pages.

View your draft pages

A card listing your draft pages appears to you on your profile page by default. If there are both draft pages that you own and draft pages that you are a collaborator on, the list of draft pages will be divided into those two categories. You can click on a draft page title in the card to go to the draft page.