Previewing your help center theme

What's my plan?

You can preview changes while you're working on your theme. You can preview branding changes for specific page templates and as a specific role. If you are on Guide Professional, you can also preview code edits by template or role.

Note: When previewing a theme, all features may not work. The preview functionality is intended to show look-and-feel changes, but it is not intended for end-to-end testing of interactive theme functionality. We recommend you use a Sandbox for end-to-end testing.

This article contains the following sections:

• Previewing your theme while updating branding
• Previewing your theme while editing theme code

Previewing your theme while updating branding

You can preview branding changes for specific page templates and as a specific role.

To preview your theme while editing theme branding

1. In Guide, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.
2. Click Customize on the theme you want to edit.

   

3. You can make changes to colors, fonts, brand, or images.

   The home page template automatically updates when you make changes.

4. Do the following to preview other pages or roles:
   • Click Templates, then select another template you'd like to preview.
   • Click Preview role, then select another role you'd like to preview.

   

   Note: The preview shows Community, even if you have disabled Community, so you can see what Community would look like if it was enabled. You cannot preview changes for your template as a user segment. However, you can assume an end user's identity and preview the changes to the theme.

Previewing your theme while editing theme code

You can preview code edits by template or role, (this requires Guide Professional or Enterprise).

To preview your theme while you are editing code

1. In Guide, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar.
2. On the theme you want to edit, click Customize to open it.
   Note: If you want to edit your live theme, copy the theme first, then edit that version. You will need to save changes before you can preview them, so it's safer to work on a copy, then make the copied theme live when you're ready.

   

3. Click Edit code.

   

4. Make a code change, then click Save to save your change.
   You must save your changes before you can preview them.

   Note: If you are editing a live theme, you have to click Publish and make your changes live before you can preview. If you don't want to do that, copy the theme and edit that version.
5. In the code editor, click Preview.

   

   The preview opens in a new tab.

6. Navigate in the preview as you normally would to see different pages in your Help Center.
7. Do one of the following to preview a specific page template or role:
   • Click Templates, then select another template you'd like to preview.
   • Click Preview role, then select another role you'd like to preview.
8. Continue to make and save code changes, then view them in the preview tab.

   As you save changes, the preview should refresh and show your updates.

9. Click Close Preview at the top left of the preview when you are finished.