Common Question -- What's the Difference Between Edit, Preview & Access?

Deah Curry PhD
Jun 17, 2014
2 min read

Having a website for the first time pushes you into the techie world of the internet. And that can be scary, intimidating, or confusing for folks who don't tend to spend their days on a computer.

Because my intent is to empower you to take care of your own website, I thought a little vocabulary lesson would be helpful.

Access Website

To access your website means to use an internet address -- aka, url -- to see your site the way the public can see it. While your website is being built you will have a temporary address for it. It will be something like:

halfmyemail.wix.com/privatepractice

So, if your email is HalfMyEmail@gmail.com the above would be your temporary site address. Likewise if your email is Julie @gmail.com, then your temporary website address will be Julie.wix.com/privatepractice

Edit Website

To edit your website, you must first be logged in to your Wix.com account. To log in go to www.Wix.com, then use your whole email address as your login name, and the password I have given you.

This will take you to your Wix account dashboard. Look for the button or link that says Edit Site. Click on that and you will then be in what I refer to as editing mode. You can easily recognize this mode by looking to the left of your screen and seeing the vertical stack of 5 tool icons. If you don't see that stack, you are not in editing mode.

Preview Website

Often when making changes in editing mode you will want to check how that will really look to the public. This is when you will use the preview mode.

To open the preview mode, look up at the top of your screen to the right side on the black bar where the Save Publish and Upgrade links are. In that same area is the link for Preview. Just click and voila!

When in preview mode you can use the regular menu bar to navigate the website, but you can't make any changes in preview mode. Also important to know is that just because you can see a change in preview mode does NOT mean that it is saved or published.

So, like what you see? Great. Return to editing mode, click Save, then click Publish so that you and your potential clients will see it when you use that temporary web address to access your site.

When is an Address No Longer Temporary?

Good question. Answer -- when you pay for your Wix webhosting account and connect your domain name. Then your access address will change to something like: