You build a Floor Plan in private. Auto-save keeps your work safe as you go, but customers only see what's published. Before you publish, you can open a Preview that loads the Floor Plan exactly as it appears on xceed.me. Once you're happy, the Publish flow lets you pick which events should pick up the changes.
Auto-save vs Publish
These are two different things and it helps to keep them straight:
Auto-save runs constantly while you edit. It saves your work to your account so you don't lose anything if you close the tab. It does not make changes visible to customers
Publish pushes your saved changes to the events using this Floor Plan. Only after publishing do customers see them
You'll see the auto-save status in the footer at all times:
Saving… — a change is being saved right now
All changes saved — everything's safe
Auto-save failed — usually a connection issue. Click Retry to try again
Tooltip in the footer: "Changes are saved automatically. They will only be visible to customers after you click Publish."
Preview as a Customer
The Preview opens the Floor Plan in a new tab using the same view your customers see on xceed.me — fullscreen map, area accordion, seat selection — but with all checkout actions disabled.
From the editor header, click Preview
If the Floor Plan is linked to two or more events, a right-side modal opens listing them, split into Active and Drafts tabs. Pick the event you want to preview
The preview opens in a new tab with the Floor Plan rendered for that event
A toast confirms you're in Preview Mode and that the link is private — only you, the organizer, can open it
If the Floor Plan is linked to only one event, the preview opens immediately without the event picker.
Previews need a linked event. Previewing a brand-new Preset that isn't connected to any event yet isn't possible — there's no event context to render against. Create or link an event first.
Publish Changes
When you're ready to push your changes live:
In the editor, click Publish (or Publish and exit to publish and close the editor) in the footer
The Publish changes drawer opens on the right, listing the events linked to this Floor Plan
Review the list and select which events should receive the changes
Click Confirm
A toast confirms: "Changes published and applied successfully."
What About Draft Events?
If you're editing a Preset, you'll see a banner at the top of the drawer:
"Draft events update automatically when you save the Floor Plan preset. You only need to select published events to push live changes."
That means draft events pick up your changes automatically — every time you save. The drawer only asks you to choose which published events should receive the changes, because those have customers already looking at them and you don't want a surprise update going live.
Select All and None shortcuts speed this up when you have many events.
Discard Unsaved Drawings
If you start drawing an area or making changes you don't want to keep, Cancel opens the Discard changes? modal:
"If you leave now, you'll lose all unsaved changes made to this area."
Yes, cancel discards
No, keep editing returns you to the editor
The same protection kicks in if you try to navigate away from the editor with unsaved changes — the browser warns you with "Unsaved changes detected. If you leave now, you will lose this progress."
Editor Lock — One Editor at a Time
Only one person can edit a Floor Plan at a time. If a teammate is already in the editor when you open it, you'll see:
Floor Plan locked — Another user is currently editing this Floor Plan. Please try again later.
Wait until they're done (or coordinate with them) before opening it yourself.
Good to Know
Preview = read-only — every checkout action is blocked, so previewing doesn't risk creating real bookings. The toast banner reminds you the link is private to you
Preview link is organizer-only — even if you copy the URL, only logged-in organizers can open it. It's not a shareable customer link
Draft events update automatically (Presets only) — there's no separate "publish to drafts" step; saving the Preset is enough. Only published events need explicit publishing
Publishing applies a snapshot — when you confirm, the current state of the Floor Plan is pushed to the events you selected. Future edits stay private until the next Publish
You can publish a subset — you don't have to push to every event at once. Roll out to one event first, watch it, then publish to the rest
Conflict during publishing — if someone else's changes land while you're confirming, you'll see an updated impact and need to re-confirm
Auto-save failures don't lose your work — if the Retry doesn't recover, screenshot what's on screen and contact support; your last successful save is still preserved
If you have any other questions, contact support@xceed.me