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πŸ’Ύ How to Save Your Course Progress: Using Draft Mode and Incremental Publishing

Learn how to protect your course content while building on WithMe. This guide covers Draft mode, the publish-to-save requirement, and smart incremental workflows so you never lose your hard work.

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πŸ’Ύ How to Save Your Course Progress

Building a course is exciting β€” but losing your hard work to an unexpected refresh or closed tab? Not so much. The good news is that WithMe gives you the tools to protect your progress every step of the way. Let's walk through exactly how saving works so you never lose a single lesson again! πŸŽ‰


⚠️ The Most Important Thing to Know

Here's the key thing to understand about course creation on WithMe: your work is not automatically saved as you type. Unlike a Google Doc, the course builder requires you to actively save your progress. If you refresh your browser, close the tab, or navigate away before saving, any unsaved changes will be lost.
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πŸ“ Note:
Think of it like writing an email β€” if you close the window before hitting send (or save), it's gone. Always save before stepping away!


πŸ“ How to Save: Draft Mode vs. Publish

You have two ways to save your course content, and both protect your work:

1. Save as Draft

Draft mode is your best friend when you're still building! When you save a lesson or module as a Draft, your content is safely stored on WithMe's servers β€” but it won't be visible to your audience yet. This means you can:

  • Work on your course over multiple sessions

  • Come back and pick up exactly where you left off

  • Make edits and revisions without anything going live

Note: You need to at least add one chapter and lesson to enable the draft option

2. Publish

When you're happy with a lesson, hit Publish to make it live. Published content is also saved β€” so publishing is saving too! The difference is simply that your audience can now see it.


βœ… Building Your Course: When to Use Draft vs Publish

Started building your course but don’t have all the content ready yet?
No worries β€” you don’t have to publish it until you’re ready.

πŸ“ Start with Draft Mode

You can safely build your course using the β€œDraft” option.

Important:

  • You need at least 1 chapter and 1 lesson to enable draft

Don’t have content yet?

  • Add a simple placeholder (like a random image or text)

  • You can replace it later with your actual content


πŸ“ Where to Find Your Drafted Course

Once saved as draft:

  • Go to My Hub

  • Your course will appear greyed out (not visible to users)

From here:

  • Click the 3 dots (β‹―) on the course

To edit course details (title, landing page, settings):
β†’ Click Edit

To add or manage lessons:
β†’ Click Edit Course Content

You can continue adding lessons normally β€”
πŸ‘‰ nothing will go live unless you publish it.


πŸš€ When You're Ready to Publish

Once your course is complete:

  • Go to My Hub

  • Click the 3 dots (β‹―) on the course

  • Click Publish

Your course will then become visible to your audience.


πŸ”„ Want to Make Changes After Publishing?

No worries β€” you can always go back and edit your course.

To unpublish:

  • Go to My Hub

  • Click the 3 dots (β‹―) on the course

  • Click Unpublish

This will remove the course from your public/member listing.

Note:

  • Anyone who already has access to the course will still retain access

  • To remove access, go to the Customers tab and remove course access for that user


πŸ’‘ Pro Tip

Build at your own pace using drafts.
You can keep editing and refining your course without worrying about users seeing incomplete content.


πŸ’‘ Pro Tips to Protect Your Work

  • Don't refresh mid-edit β€” if you haven't saved, refreshing the page will erase your unsaved changes

  • Work in a text editor first β€” for long-form written lessons, consider drafting in Google Docs or Notes first, then paste into WithMe once you're ready

  • Check your upload status β€” if a video upload is still processing, wait for it to complete before navigating away

πŸ“ Note:
If you ever run into a stuck upload or something doesn't seem to be saving properly, don't panic! Reach out to our human support team and we'll assist you with troubleshoot and best practises. You're not just another ticket β€” you're a partner. πŸ’¬

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