At the November Metro Detroit WordPress meetup last night, our theme was Share Your Favorite Plugin
where several members (me included!) spoke about one of our favorite WordPress plugins.
Each speaker had five minutes to explain:
- Why the plugin was one of their favorites
- What features the plugin offered
- How the plugin worked
We had talks on Contact Form 7, Advanced Custom Fields, Duplicate Post, WooCommerce, and Public Post Preview (which I presented).
At the end of our meetup, one member came up to me and said,
There was so much I learned tonight. And some of it was over my head. But, thank you!
Tonight’s talks gave me ideas for new plugins to try out on my site.
We were glad to try out a new format for the Metro Detroit WordPress meetup and excited that our members enjoyed the talks.
Based on the positive feedback from our members, I decided to start a new Share Your Favorite Plugin
series on this blog where I’ll highlight some of my favorite plugins I use in client projects.
And the first post in the series will be the plugin I shared last night.
Public Post Preview
Have you ever wanted to have someone review your draft post, but didn’t want to have to copy and paste the contents of the post to an email message?
Sure, you could take the time to create a new user account for them on your WordPress site, but then you have to remember to remove their access once they’re done reviewing your post.
Wouldn’t you like a simpler way to have someone preview your post?
That’s the whole idea behind Public Post Preview, a free plugin that allows anonymous users to preview a post (or other post type) before the post is published.
I use it regularly when I want someone to review a post before it goes live, or I need someone to check my code examples.
Why I Like It
- It’s a free plugin in the WordPress directory
- Updated regularly
- Serves one purpose: to allow preview of a post before it’s published
How Public Post Preview Works
Once the plugin is installed, you’ll find a new Enable public preview checkbox in the Publish module when you’re editing a post.
Once you’ve enabled the checkbox and saved the draft post, a link displays below the checkbox.
Copy the link and share with the person you want to preview the post.
What You Need to Know
- Public Post Preview only works on non-published posts that are saved as drafts
- The link is temporary; it only works for 48 hours
- If you need more than 48 hours, use the Public Post Preview Configurator to extend preview time
Summary
When you want someone to preview your post before it goes live, but you don’t want to give them an account on your blog, use Public Post Preview to provide a temporary link to the post.
I’m excited about starting this series on plugins. I’ll follow the same format for each plugin, but if you have other info you’d like included, let me know.
Writing about my favorite plugins will also kick-start me into submitting reviews to the WordPress plugin directory.
Have you used Public Post Preview? Or have you found another method to provide preview access to your unpublished posts?
