WordPress 4.9 lets design changes made in the Customizer be saved as drafts, previewed by others and scheduled to go live at a set time. Test the update on a copy first, especially with an older theme.

Released yesterday

WordPress 4.9 was released yesterday. Being a major version, it does not install itself the way minor security updates do; an administrator has to start it.

The change that matters most for a business site is in the Customizer, the screen under Appearance where the logo, colours, header, menus and widgets are edited with a live preview.

Until now the Customizer had one way out: publish, at once. From this version, changes there can be saved as a draft, shown to someone else first, and scheduled for a set date and time.

What is new

The second is the one a seasonal business will use. Holiday hours, a winter header, a link to a New Year's Eve page: each can now be prepared in advance and set to appear on the right morning.

Why publishing at once caused trouble

The Customizer always previewed changes, but only for the person making them, and only until they pressed Publish. Half-finished work could not be saved.

So changes were made in one sitting, often late in the evening when the business was closed, and checked by nobody else. A mistake stayed on the live site until a customer noticed.

Drafts and scheduling separate preparing a change from publishing it.

Drafts and a second pair of eyes

A draft can be built over several days. Close the Customizer, come back tomorrow, and the work is waiting, while visitors still see the current site.

Use the device buttons at the bottom of the Customizer to preview the draft at phone and tablet sizes. Header photographs in particular crop differently on a phone.

Then send the preview link to whoever should approve it: the owner, the manager, the person who knows the hours.

Scheduling for the right morning

When the draft is right, choose Schedule instead of Publish and pick the date and time. The time follows the site's own clock, set under Settings, then General, so check it shows your city.

Scheduled changes go live through the same timer WordPress uses for scheduled posts, which runs when the site is visited. On a quiet site, the change can appear a little late.

Set the time ahead of opening, then look at the site once it has passed to make sure the change actually went live.

A worked example

A vegan restaurant with about forty seats runs a WordPress site: the menu, hours in a sidebar widget, a reservations link in the main menu and a header photograph that changes with the seasons.

Every December the manager changed the header, the hours and the menu link to the New Year's Eve dinner after closing on the night before, straight onto the live site.

Last year the hours widget showed the wrong week's closing dates for two days, and the new header cut the food out of the photograph on phones. A regular mentioned both.

The changes went live the moment they were made, late at night, checked only on the laptop of the person making them.

This year the developer who maintains the site is updating a copy to 4.9 first, to check the theme and the reservations widget. Then the December changes will be built as a draft over a week.

The manager will check the phone preview, send the link to the owner and the chef, and schedule everything for six on the morning of December 1. Someone opens the site at nine to confirm it went live.

What the Customizer does not cover

Not everything on a site lives in the Customizer. Pages and posts are edited in the editor, and an edit to a page that is already published goes live the moment you press Update.

Many themes and page builders also keep their own settings on separate screens, outside the Customizer, where drafts and scheduling do not reach.

So a holiday change may be only partly schedulable: the header and hours widget can wait for their date, but a page edit cannot.

The code editors

Version 4.9 also adds safeguards where code is typed. The Additional CSS box, the Custom HTML widget and the theme and plugin editors now colour the code and mark obvious mistakes while it is being typed.

Opening the theme or plugin editor brings a warning first. And saving a PHP edit that would break the site now brings a warning about the error, rather than a blank screen for every visitor.

These catch typing mistakes. They do not make the dashboard editors the right place to alter a theme, which is still work for a child theme or for whoever maintains the site.

Testing before updating

Back up first, then update a copy of the site rather than the live one, especially if the theme is a few years old or adds its own panels to the Customizer.

On the copy, open the Customizer and check that its preview loads and every panel works. Open Additional CSS and read any flags, since older CSS that browsers quietly accepted may now be marked.

Then check the forms, the menus and a page or two on a phone, and update the live site. Waiting a week or two is reasonable, since security fixes continue for 4.8 in the meantime.

The counter-case

A site whose design rarely changes will get little from scheduling, and a site built mostly in a page builder may find its seasonal changes happen outside the Customizer anyway.

Neither is a reason to stay on an old version. Major versions stack up, and a site several behind is a harder update later.

For any site with seasonal changes, update on a copy first, then prepare those changes as drafts and schedule them, instead of making them live at night.

Before the holiday changes

  1. Copy the files and database somewhere safe.
  2. Update a copy of the site first.
  3. Check the Customizer opens and previews properly.
  4. Confirm the clock shows your city.
  5. Build holiday changes as a draft.
  6. Send the preview link to whoever approves.
  7. Schedule it, then check it went live.

Step six is the one most likely to catch a mistake. The person who made a change is the worst placed to spot what is wrong with it, and a preview link makes a second look easy.

Checking those changes in more than one browser is covered in Firefox Quantum and testing in more than one browser.

Frequently asked questions

What is new in WordPress 4.9?

Customizer changes can be saved as drafts, shared through a preview link and scheduled. The code editors gain error checking, and the theme and plugin editors show a warning.

Will my site update to 4.9 automatically?

Probably not. Sites apply minor security updates by themselves, but a major version such as 4.9 needs an administrator to start the update.

What can be scheduled in the Customizer?

Anything edited there, such as the logo, colours, header image, menus and widgets. Changes to an already published page still go live when you press Update.

Why did my scheduled change go live late?

WordPress publishes scheduled changes through a timer that runs when the site is visited. On a quiet site, the first visit after the set time triggers it.

Who should see the preview link?

Whoever approves changes: the owner, a manager or the person who knows the hours. Ask them to look at it on a phone, not only on a computer.

Should I update to 4.9 straight away?

Try it on a copy of the site before the live one, especially with an older theme. Waiting a week or two is reasonable, since 4.8 keeps receiving security fixes.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Holiday changes usually made at midnight?

Ask us to update a copy of your site to 4.9 and set up your seasonal changes as scheduled drafts.

Start a Conversation