Pages - Saving, Checking In, & Publishing

In the Oregon.gov SharePoint sites, it is imperative to understand the effects of the actions of saving, checking in and publishing a page after changes have been made.

Save

How Save Works

Save only affects the current authors view of changes and any changes will not be visible to other authors, even if the current author saves and closes the page. The author editing the page will see the changes made with their most recent update, but they will not appear for anyone else, even another author with the same permission level.

The page will still be checked out to the current author and unavailable to other authors (who the page is checked out to still is listed in the blue banner under the header of the site). If the checkout is over-ridden before these changes are published, all changes will be lost.

How To Save a Page

To Save a page while editing, use the SharePoint ribbon and choose Page and click the Save button. This will exit the editing session, but you can also choose to click the small arrow under Save, this will bring up more options including Save and Keep Editing to keep the editing session open. 

Check In

How Check In Works

When a page is saved, the changes are only available for that author to view. Check In is the next step in the process which saves a minor version of the page. This shares this version with anyone else who is able to log into the authoring environment without making it available to website visitors. This is a great way to share the most recent updates with other members of your team to approve or suggest edits. 

How To Check In a Page

To Check In a page, use the SharePoint ribbon and choose Page and click the Check In button. This will exit the editing session and save a minor version. You can also choose to click the small arrow under Check In, this will bring up more options. These options include Discard Check Out, which is a great way to undo any changes you made to the page in this session if you wish to revert to what it was prior to your editing. There is also the option for Override Check Out. A website author might edit and save a page without checking it in. The user who has the page checked out will have their name display in a blue banner under the header. No other authors can edit the page while it is checked out to them. Override Check Out overrides that authors check out and makes it available to other authors, but beware it will lose any updates they have made to the page. 

Publish

How Publish Works

Pages can be edited and saved or checked in without having the changes show up on the live website. For any changes to show up on an Oregon.gov site for all visitors the page must be published.

Publishing a page creates a major version, and this major version will be available for anyone who views the site.

How To Publish a Page

To Publish a page, use the SharePoint ribbon and choose Publish and click the Publish button. This will exit the editing session and open a model for any comments or notes you wish to to add. Once you click Continue on the modal, those change are published. There is also a small arrow under the Publish button you can use for more options. Submit, Cancel Approval, and Unpublish are only available if that SharePoint site has an approval workflow enabled.