Duplicate a page in WordPress and publish it later

Dirigible has a Clone link on every page, post, event and other item. It makes a draft copy and opens it in the editor, so you can rework a page while the live one stays up, or start a new page from one you've already built. You don't need a plugin.

Clone the page

Any of these makes the copy and opens it in the editor:

• On Pages → All Pages, hover over the page and click Clone.
• In the editor, click Clone in the sidebar's Summary panel.
• While viewing the page on your site, click Clone in the bar at the top.

The copy gets the page's content, featured image, template, SEO fields and other settings. It starts as a draft with no address of its own. See Clone for exactly what it copies.

Edit the copy

1. The copy keeps the original's title and shows as Draft in the pages list. To tell the two apart more easily, add something like "revision" to the copy's title while you work.
2. Edit it like any other page. See Create and edit a page in WordPress.
3. Click Save draft as you go. Leave it as a draft until you're ready.

Publish the copy at the original address

The copy is a second page. When it's ready to replace the live one:

1. Open the live original. In the sidebar, add -old to the end of its URL slug, click Switch to draft, and save.
2. Open the copy. If you added "revision" to its title, take it out. Set its URL slug to what the original's was, without -old.
3. Click Publish.

The old version stays in Pages as a draft in case you need to switch back. If anything still links to the -old address, add a redirect.

Tips

• To launch the copy as a separate page instead, give it its own title and address and publish it.
• Menus point at the page itself, not its address. After you swap the pages, check your menus and point them at the new page if needed.
• After you publish, check the page in a private browser window to make sure you're seeing the latest version.