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Preview and test

Last modified: 06 March 2025

As you are working on the content, you can use the Writerside Preview tool window to preview any topic. For more information, see Preview topics.

Writerside uses the built-in web server to serve the help pages. Click Open in Browser Open in Browser in the Writerside Preview tool window to open the current topic in a web browser. You can actually preview your whole help this way: navigate to any topic, click any link, and even search for any keywords.

Share preview link

  • In the Writerside Preview tool window, click Copy Preview Link Copy Preview Link to copy the link to the topic preview. Here is an example: 

    http://localhost:63335/Writerside+Help+Sources/preview/preview-build-and-publish.html

    If you change localhost to the IP address of your computer, you will be able to share this link with other users who have access to your IP address. However, make sure that the built-in web server accepts external connections.

If you do not have a publicly accessible IP address, you can use your private network IP address and share the built help with others in your network. You can find your private IP using the ipconfig command on Windows or the ifconfig command on macOS and most Linux distributions. Look for entries with IPv4 and inet.

Alternatively, you can go to your network connection settings details.

Enable external connections to built-in web server

  1. Press CtrlAlt0S to open the settings and select Build, Execution, Deployment | Debugger.

  2. Under Built-in Server, select Can accept external connections.

    tip

    If the option is not available, select a port number smaller than the default 63342.