Share a published reference
Give your teams read-only access to the published policy. They can refer to its content while contributors prepare changes in the draft.
Internal policy management
Keep policies clear while your next update takes shape.
Give your team a published policy they can refer to while the people responsible work on the next version. Collaborate on draft content, discuss changes in comments, and publish when the update is ready.
How can we update a policy without changing what our team reads?
Give your team read access to the published policy and set draft access separately for contributors. Draft content changes leave the published version unchanged. Contributors can edit and discuss the next version, while someone with publishing rights decides when the revised content becomes available to readers.
Give each person the access their work needs
Set permissions separately for the draft and published views, sharing with people, teams or your organisation.
Work through changes together
Give contributors draft comment or edit access. Highlight a passage to discuss its wording, reply to feedback and resolve threads as the update takes shape.
Keep the release decision clear
Assign publishing rights to the people responsible for releasing changes. Publishing copies the draft content to the published version and keeps a revision.
Example
Update an expenses policy while employees keep using it
For example, a finance team can prepare new guidance on travel receipts while employees continue referring to the existing published expenses policy.
- Share the current policy. Give employees read access to the published view and give the finance contributors appropriate access to the draft.
- Prepare the change. Add a draft paragraph explaining which receipts to attach to travel claims. Draft content saves as contributors work, leaving the published policy unchanged.
- Discuss the wording. A contributor highlights the paragraph and comments, "Should we explain what to provide when a receipt is missing?" The team works through that feedback in the draft's comment thread.
- Publish the agreed update. When the content is ready, someone with publishing rights publishes it. Employees with published access can then read the revised guidance.
- Keep the earlier publication. The previous published content remains in version history if the team needs to refer to it or restore it.
Draft and published views have separate comment sets. People with read-only published access see the policy without its working discussion.
Return to an earlier version when needed
Every publication is kept as a revision. Someone with publishing rights can restore an earlier published revision, making that content available to readers again. The restoration is recorded as a new revision, preserving the publication history.
Draft edits are recorded too. Someone with draft-edit access can restore an earlier working state, or discard draft content changes to return the working copy to the current published content.
Restoring published content does not restore the document title.
Questions about managing policies
Can we keep the draft separate from the teams who read the policy?
Yes. Give policy readers access to the published view and set draft access separately. Check folder permissions too, because documents inherit access from their folder. Organisation admins retain full access.
Can someone comment without editing the draft?
Yes. Draft comment access lets someone join the discussion without changing the document content. Draft and published comments are separate, and read-only users do not see comment threads.
Who can publish a policy update?
Someone with publishing rights can copy the draft content to the published view. Publishing rights also include draft-edit access, so the person releasing the update can work on its content.
Do all document changes wait for publishing?
Draft content changes wait until publication. The document title, folder and metadata update immediately, so treat changes to those details separately from changes to the policy text.
What happens when we restore an earlier published revision?
Someone with publishing rights can restore its content as the published version. The restoration creates a new revision and does not restore the document title. Draft-edit access separately lets contributors restore an earlier draft state.
Start with a policy your team already uses.
Create the document, decide who can read, contribute and publish, then prepare its next update with a clear release decision.
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