Edit and publish a page in Appearance

In this article we will show you how to change the Home or a custom page of your block-based store and how to get your changes in front of your visitors.

BEFORE YOU START​

• Your store must have the block-based store enabled.
• Your user must have permission to manage the store content.

💡 Everything you do in the editor is saved in a draft. Your visitors keep seeing the published version until you publish. The first time you publish the Home, the store starts showing with blocks.

HOW THE EDITOR IS ORGANIZED​

Go to Control Panel > Settings > Interface > Appearance. Each page has two tabs: Blocks and Page settings. In this article we use Blocks.

The block list always has the same order, from top to bottom:

1. Navigation bar (marked as fixed).

2. Your content blocks: Product shelf and Embedded HTML rows.

3. The Add block button.

4. Footer (marked as fixed).

The navigation bar is always first and the footer is always last. They cannot be moved, duplicated or removed.

• On the Home they cannot be hidden. They only have the Edit button.
• On a custom page they have an eye icon to hide or show them on that page only.
• Their content is shared: if you edit it from a custom page, you are editing the Home's version, so it reaches your visitors when you publish the Home.

To set up their content, see Set up the navigation bar and footer.

OPEN A PAGE​

1. Go to Control Panel > Settings > Interface > Appearance. The Home opens.

2. Click the page title at the top (the page selector).

3. Choose the page. The list has two groups: Store pages (Home and Product page) and Custom pages.

4. If you do not see your custom page, click See all pages. The selector shows only the 5 newest custom pages.

Under the title you will see the page URL, a button to copy it and a button to open it in a new tab.

💡 The Product page appears in the selector, but it has its own editor. See Add a pop-up and a product page notice. To create a new page, see Create custom pages and set up their SEO.

ADD A BLOCK​

You can add two kinds of blocks: Product shelf and Embedded HTML.

1. Click Add block at the end of the list. To insert a block at a specific position, hover between two blocks and click the + that appears.

2. Choose an option:

• Product shelf: shows publications selected with filters.
• Embedded HTML: shows the HTML, styles and scripts you paste.

3. Fill in the editor that opens. For a shelf, click Add block in the editor footer to create it.

4. Click Back to return to the list.

⚠️ A new shelf needs at least one complete filter. If you open the shelf editor and leave without clicking Add block, nothing is added.

For the fields of each block, see Add shelves and embedded HTML.

EDIT A BLOCK​

1. Find the block row. A shelf shows its title and its source. An Embedded HTML block shows its character count.

2. Click Edit.

3. Change the fields. The editor saves to the draft automatically, there is no save button.

4. Click Back.

REORDER BLOCKS​

1. Grab the drag handle (Reorder block) of a shelf or Embedded HTML row.

2. Drop it in its new position, between the navigation bar and the footer.

The new order is saved with the next autosave.

HIDE OR SHOW A BLOCK​

1. Click the eye icon (Toggle visibility) on the row.

2. Check the row: a hidden block looks dimmed and its secondary text starts with "Hidden".

A hidden block stays in the draft and keeps its settings, but it does not reach your visitors when you publish. Click the eye again to show it.

DUPLICATE A BLOCK​

1. Open the ... menu (More block actions) on the row.

2. Click Duplicate block.

The copy appears right after the original and keeps its visibility. For a shelf, the copy's title ends with "(copy)".

REMOVE A BLOCK​

1. Open the ... menu on the row.

2. Click Remove block.

3. In the Remove this block? window, click Remove block.

The block leaves the draft and the change is saved immediately. To recover it before you publish, use Revert to published version.

⚠️ Reverting discards every unpublished change on the page, not only the removed block. On a page that was never published there is no revert button, so you will not be able to recover the block that way: add it again.

PREVIEW A CHANGE​

You have three ways to check the result before you publish.

The live preview panel is hidden on narrow windows. Widen the window or use View draft.

All previews show the page as a visitor who is not signed in sees it. That is why shelves that depend on the signed-in customer (for example My content) do not show.

The View draft tab shows a banner saying that you are viewing a draft. Your visitors never see that banner or the draft.

PUBLISH A PAGE​

1. Check the badge and the autosave state at the top (see the tables below). Wait for "Saved" before you publish.

2. Click Publish in the bottom bar.

3. Read the confirmation window. On the Home it asks "Publish the changes?" and on a custom page "Publish this page?".

4. Click Publish.

The editor confirms with the message "Changes published." The badge disappears and a View my store link (or View page on a custom page) appears.

⚠️ The first publish of the Home takes the store live. From that moment, your visitors see the block-based store instead of the previous one. Review the Home first with View draft.

WHAT PUBLISHES AND WHAT DOES NOT​

Not every setting follows the draft and publish cycle.

REVERT TO THE PUBLISHED VERSION​

Use this to throw away the draft and go back to what your visitors see.

1. Click Revert to published version in the bottom bar. On narrow windows it shows only an undo icon.

2. Read the Revert to the published version? window. It warns that unpublished changes are lost and that the action cannot be undone.

3. Click Revert to published version.

The button only shows when the page has a published version and the draft differs from it.

BADGES AND STATES​

PUBLISH BADGES​

AUTOSAVE STATES​

The editor saves 2 seconds after your last change. It also saves before you open another editor or leave the page.

"DRAFT OUT OF DATE" BANNER​

An amber banner titled Draft out of date appears when someone else, or another tab of yours, updated the same draft. While it shows, the Publish button is disabled.

1. Click Reload draft.

2. Review the latest version.

3. Repeat your change if it is missing, then publish.

💡 To avoid conflicts, have only one person edit a page at a time.

ADULT CONTENT EXCLUSION​

On the Home Blocks tab there is an Adult content exclusion switch, which hides content with the "Adults Only" audience from the shelves. It does not appear on custom pages.

• It is a store-wide setting, not a setting of the Home page.
• It saves immediately and is not part of the draft. You do not need to publish to apply it.

COMMON PROBLEMS​

The Publish button is disabled. The Draft out of date banner is showing. Click Reload draft, then publish.

When I publish I get "There is nothing to publish." The draft is identical to the published version. Check that you are editing the right page. Remember that SEO and the adult content switch apply on their own and do not count as draft changes.

The live preview does not show my change. It reloads after each autosave. Wait for "Saved", then check again. If the panel is missing, the window is too narrow: use View draft.

A shelf shows "No publications for visitors." The shelf has no products for the visitor in the preview, and it will not show on the store while it stays empty. Review its filters. A My content shelf is empty for signed-out visitors by design.

My change is saved but visitors do not see it. Check these in order:

1. The badge says Unpublished changes or Draft: publish the page.

2. The change is a theme change: publish it from the theme editor.

3. The change is on a pop-up: it publishes on its own and the Home must have been published once before.

4. The page is a custom page and the store is not live yet: custom pages only show after the Home has been published for the first time.

5. The change is a navigation bar or footer change made from a custom page: it belongs to the Home, so publish the Home.

Can I hide the navigation bar on the Home? No. The navigation bar and the footer are always visible on the Home.

We hope this tutorial has been easy for you. If you have questions, write to us at [email protected].