The preview interface makes it possible to generate a real preview of any version that exists on the system. This interface is typically used to create a preview of the draft that is currently being edited. It can be reached by clicking the "View" button in the object edit interface or by following the version/translation links in the version interface. The following screenshot shows how the preview interface looks like.

The preview interface.

The purpose of this interface is to generate a real presentation of how the actual page (based on the contents of the object being previewed) will look like using different designs. In particular, this interface is typically used to get an impression of how the page that somebody is working on will look like on the site (what the visitors will see). The screenshot above shows how a folder called "Products" will look like using the design that is associated with the "news_user" siteaccess.

A fullscreen preview can be generated using the button which is located just above the preview area (it looks like a small window with four red arrows in its corners). The "Manage versions" and the "Edit" buttons bring the user back to either the version interface or the object edit interface (depending on where they came from).

The "View control" window

The "View control" window makes it possible to control which design that should be used to generate the preview. In eZ Publish, the different designs are associated with siteaccesses. Selecting a siteaccess will instruct the system to use the design of that siteaccess. The locations list can be used to check out how the object will look like when viewed at different locations (if it in fact exists at different locations in the node tree). The "Update view" button simply re-generates the preview based on the selections made in the "View control" window.