Publishing, Unpublishing, and Drafts

Every event starts as a private draft that only your team can see. Publishing is what turns it into a live public page people can open, share, and register on. This article explains the draft, publish, and unpublish states and how saving works.

Before you begin

You need admin or staff access to the Events area.
Start by creating an event. A new event opens straight into the editor as a draft.

How drafts work

When you create an event, it begins life as a draft. A draft has no public page yet, so nobody outside your team can find it or register.

Drafts get their own Drafts section pinned to the top of your Events list, so a new event you are still working on never gets buried under your upcoming events. It stays there until you publish it.

Save your work as you go

Saving is deliberate, not automatic. You can change many fields at once, and they all save together when you choose to save. This keeps things like the date, time, and location from ever half-updating.

While you have unsaved changes, a small amber dot appears next to the word Event at the top of the editor. Hover it and it reads "Unsaved changes."
If you try to leave the page with unsaved changes, your browser warns you first so nothing gets lost.

Event name, Date, and Start time are all required before Churchday can save. If any is missing, you will see a note telling you what to fill in.

Publish your event

Fill in the required fields. Make sure Event name, Date, and Start time are all set.
Click Publish. On a draft, you will see two buttons: Save draft (to keep working privately) and Publish (to go live).
See it go live. Publishing creates the public event page and moves the event out of Drafts into your Upcoming events list. You are automatically added as attending, so you show up on the attendee list right away.

Unpublish an event

If you need to take a live event back offline, open it and look at the top of the editor. A published event shows Unpublish and Save.

Click Unpublish to return the event to a draft. Its public page comes down and it moves back to the Drafts section.
Click Save to keep the event live and save any edits you have made.

Good to know

Your web address is set early and then locked. Your event's custom web address is created from your event name the first time you save it as a draft. Once you publish, that address is locked so any links or check-in QR codes you have already shared keep working, even if you rename the event later.
Unpublishing is safe. It hides the public page but keeps the event, its details, and its registrations. Publish again whenever you are ready.
Draft edits are private. Nothing you change on a draft is visible to the public until you publish.