Share a Draft

Sharing an Unpublished Post

Share a Draft creates a private link to a post you have not published yet. Anyone you send the link to can read the post without logging in to WordPress, and the link stops working after a length of time you choose. It is useful when someone outside your site needs to review a post before it goes live, or when you need to point people at a post that is scheduled to publish later.

What You Can Share

You can share any post that is a draft, pending review, scheduled, or private. You cannot share a post that is already published, and you can only share posts you have permission to edit. The plugin works with posts, not pages.

Creating a Link

1. In the dashboard, go to Posts, then Share a Draft.
2. Pick the post from the Choose a draft menu. Your own unpublished posts and other people’s are listed separately.
3. Set how long the link should last. The default is 2 weeks, and you can count in minutes, hours, days, or weeks instead.
4. Click Share it.

The link appears in the Currently shared drafts table at the top of the page, next to the post title and the time remaining. It looks like https://yoursite.wfu.edu/?p=1234&shareadraft=baba1234_65f0c2a91b3d7. Copy it and send it to whoever needs to read the post.

Extending or Revoking a Link

In the Currently shared drafts table, Extend adds more time to a link that is about to run out, and Delete switches it off right away. Links also expire on their own at the time you set. Once a link has expired or been deleted, anyone who opens it sees a Page Not Found.

Using It with a Scheduled Post

Share a Draft works well alongside Schedule a Post. A scheduled post stays off your blog listing, out of your site’s search results, and out of your site’s feed until its publish time arrives, so a shared link is the only way to reach it in the meantime. When the scheduled time arrives the post publishes as normal, and the link you sent out keeps working, because it redirects to the post’s real address.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Anyone who has the link can read the post, and can pass the link along to someone else. Treat a shared draft as unlisted rather than secure.
• If you need genuine access control rather than an unlisted link, use Private & Password Protected Pages instead.
• The Choose a draft menu lists only your five most recent unpublished posts, and five from everyone else. If the post you want is not in the list, publish or remove some of the newer drafts ahead of it, or get in touch with us.
• Each person manages their own links. You will not see links other people have created, and they will not see yours.