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Publishing and sharing

Who can read a story, its address, private and preview links, passcodes, schedules and teasers.

Publish and unpublish

Choose Publish at the top of the editor. Publish story puts a draft out for the first time, and Publish changes puts out what you have changed since. Readers see the last version you published. Your draft stays yours until then.

Unpublish takes the story down. Nothing is deleted, and you can publish it again. Versions, lower on the page, lists each version you have published. Preview shows one, and Publish version puts an earlier one out again.

Edit a kept version

If you own the story, open the More menu beside a version and choose Make an editable copy. Your current changes save first. The saved version opens as a new private draft with its own beats, bundles, pages and routes. The copy counts towards your story limit, and new files count towards your file and storage limits. New font files stay with the copy and keep counting until that story is deleted, even after you choose another face.

Some older versions have only a reader copy saved. You can still preview or publish those versions, but cannot open them for editing. A version whose saved files are missing or have been replaced explains why it cannot be copied. Your original story and its published version stay as they are.

Who can read it

Who can read it, in Publish, has four choices.

• Anyone. Anyone with the link can read it. No sign-in needed.
• Signed-in readers. Only readers signed in to Scrolling Stories can open it.
• My groups. Only members of the groups you put it in can read it. It is never in Browse, the feeds or search. This choice is there once you belong to a group.
• Private link. Only people with the link can read it. Private links are never listed or embedded.

A story anyone can read can also be shown in Browse and the feeds anyone can follow. Show in Browse and feeds turns that on.

Finding it by its words

Search in Browse looks at a story's title, description, tags and author, and at the words of the version you last published. A result shows a short passage with the matching words marked. Read passage opens the story as a page at those words. For words that are only in the scrolling story, or if you turned off Read as a page, Read in story opens the story there instead.

Only stories anyone can read and that are shown in Browse and feeds can be found this way. Changes you have not published are not searched. Unpublishing a story, or changing who can read it or whether it is shown in Browse, takes its words out of search. A chapter you hide from the chapter list keeps its name out of search, and the words under it can still be found. Descriptions you wrote for pictures are searched. File names are not.

The address

A published story has an address made of your handle and a link for the story, like /u/your-handle/your-story/. In Publish, the Link section has a field for each, and shows the address readers find it at. If you don't choose a story link, one is made from the title when you publish.

Use lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. You can change your handle once. If you change a published story's link or your handle, the old address redirects to the new one.

Private links

Choose Private link under Who can read it, and the Link section shows the link to copy. Anyone you send it to can read the story, with no account. While a story is on a private link it has no readable address, so nobody can guess it, and anyone who has the link can pass it on.

If the link has gone further than you meant, choose New link under it. The old link stops working straight away, so send the new one to anyone who should still read the story. Only the story's owner can make a new link. Removing a person from the story makes a new link too, because they saw the old one in the editor.

Passcodes

A story on a private link can have a passcode as well. Set one in the Passcode section, with at least 4 characters. Readers enter it once per browser. Send it separately from the link. Replace changes it, and every reader has to enter the new one, even someone who entered the old one. Remove takes it off, so anyone with the link can read the story.

Schedules

In Schedule, Publish at sets a date and time for a draft to go out, and Unpublish at sets one for a published story to come down. Times are in your time zone, and a change happens within 15 minutes of the time you set. Readers see the story as it is at that time, so you can keep editing until then. Unpublishing deletes nothing.

Preview links

A preview link shows a draft to someone who isn't signed in. Choose Create preview link in Publish. It works for 24 hours and shows the story as it is now, even before you publish. A link you turn off stops working straight away, and so does every link a person made once you remove them from the story. Shared preview links lists each link, when it expires and whether it has been opened.

Open full-screen preview is for you: it shows the story the way a reader gets it, starting where the playhead is.

Someone who opens a preview link that has run out or been turned off is told to ask you for a new one. A preview link shows the story as a scroll, so it doesn't offer Read as a page; use Preview as a page in the editor to see that for yourself.

Make a teaser

A teaser is a short video of your story to post on Reels, TikTok or Shorts. It is upright, like a phone held up, and has no sound. It scrolls through the story at a reader's pace, and ends on a closing card with the title, your name and the story's address. For now a teaser starts at the beginning and runs for 15 seconds, or less if the story is shorter.

In Publish, the Teaser card has Make teaser. The row under it says Preparing… while the video is made, then the size and Ready with Download. Download links last a day, and a teaser is kept for a week.

A teaser shows the version you have published, so publish your changes first. While that teaser is ready, Make teaser is dimmed and Download is the way to it. After you publish again, Make teaser makes one of the new version, and the earlier ones stay in the list until they expire.

The card says why when a teaser can't be made. The story has to be published and open to Anyone, so a story on a private link, or for signed-in readers or your groups, can't have one. Each plan includes a number of teasers a month; the card says when you have used them and when you get more. A teaser that can't be prepared doesn't count: choose Try again. When a teaser has expired, Make it again makes a new one, and it counts as one of the month's teasers.

Editable backups

An editable backup keeps the story and its files so you can open an editable copy later, even if the story is gone. Open Publish → Export, choose Editable backup, then Prepare backup. It saves your latest changes first and works before you publish, on every plan. Folder, PDF and EPUB are reading copies of the published story.

The backup keeps every beat, both shapes, photos, video, sound, captions, pages, maps, tracks, fonts and bundles. Embedded videos and maps stay links, so they need an internet connection. It doesn’t keep collaborators, private links, passcodes, schedules or reading stats. If something can’t go in the backup, you’re told what it is and no file is made.

Choose Download backup when it’s ready. Each story keeps its newest backup for 7 days, so preparing another replaces it, and a download link lasts up to 24 hours; only you, signed in, can use it. Get new link makes another while the backup is kept.

To open one, choose New story, then From an editable backup, pick the file and choose Open backup. A backup can be up to 1.0 GB with 10000 files. Checking it makes nothing yet: you see the library items and storage it needs, and confirm you may use any audio in it. Create draft makes a new private draft with its own copies of the files, within your plan’s limits. Up to 3 uploaded backups can wait at once; creating a draft, cancelling or choosing another backup frees a place, and Cancel waiting backups frees them all.