How to Share a Post Draft

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Only admins and authors can view other users’ drafts in WordPress. This is generally a good thing, but it prevents you from sharing your rough draft with someone who isn’t registered on your site.

Like most issues in WordPress, this problem is easily solved with a plugin. Keep reading to find out how.

How to Share an Unpublished Post

If you want to share a preview link with an unregistered user, you can do so with the Public Post Preview plugin.

The first step is to install and activate the plugin. Then, navigate to the Edit Post screen for the draft you want to share.

post draft in the post list

Once in the Edit Post screen, locate the new Enable public preview option in the Publish post meta box. Check the box, and you’ll see a new preview URL appear.

The new preview link can be shared with anyone, and they’ll be able to see the draft in its latest state.

Only people who have the link will be able to view the draft, and if you decide you want to restrict the preview after a certain period of time, you can simply uncheck the box. Visitors will then be denied access to the preview.

Ben Sibley
Ben Sibley
This article was written by Ben Sibley. He is a WordPress theme designer & developer, and founder of Compete Themes.