Tana Publish

Overview

Publish a Tana node and share its URL with anyone. Viewers do not need a Tana account. Published pages are read only.

You can choose between two formats:

• Tana View. Shows the content as it appears in your workspace, including outline, supertags, fields, and views.
• Article View. Renders a static reading page with simple formatting.

Published pages are read only and do not require a Tana account to view.

How publishing works

Open the publish preview

On the node you want to publish, open the preview in one of two ways:

• Right-click the node, then choose Publish -> Open publish preview
• Run the command Cmd/Ctrl+K -> Publish (open preview)

This applies publish settings and adds a globe menu with options:

• Open preview preview (opens the preview panel)
• Republish (update the live version after edits)
• Copy published link (copy URL to clipboard)
• View on the web (open URL in your browser)
• Unpublish (remove content from the internet)
• Remove publish settings (clear publish settings for unpublished nodes)

Publish, update and unpublish

Publish a node. Open the preview and press the Publish button in the bottom right. A confirmation appears and the link is copied to your clipboard.

Republish a node. After you edit a published node, press Publish changes in the publish preview to update the live page.

Unpublish a node. To remove a published page from the internet:

• Right-click the node, then choose Publish -> Unpublish, or
• Run the command Cmd/Ctrl+K -> Unpublish

Indexing

• Published pages are not automatically indexed by search engines
• However, pages may be indexed if links are shared publicly (social media, forums, etc.)
• Images within published pages are blocked from indexing

Tana View

Tana View enables you to publish any node from your workspace as an interactive, read-only web page.

Published content maintains the same appearance and structure as in your workspace, allowing viewers to experience your Tana content exactly as you see it.

The publish preview shows exactly what viewers will see, allowing you to test navigation and visibility settings before sharing.

Managing references

References to content outside the published node require special attention to control what viewers can access.

• References to external nodes display only the title and description – not the content within – unless explicitly made visible.
• To include content within references, open the publish preview and select the Make visible on that reference.
• Search nodes with 3 or more results include a Make all content visible button which makes all search results accessible to viewers.
• Previously visible references can be hidden again. Click the hide button in the preview to remove access.

Viewer experience

What viewers can do

• Navigate freely within the published content.
• Expand and collapse nodes, zoom into nodes with content, and use breadcrumbs and related content.
• See and interact with embeds and media, such as videos and images.

What viewers cannot do

• Edit, add, or delete any content.
• Rearrange or reorganize nodes.
• Change view or view options. Search nodes are converted to plain nodes with view options applied upon publishing.
• See or run commands.

Article View

Article presents your published content as a static page with formatting options.

Automatic thumbnails

• In places that show link previews, these will be populated by an auto-generated thumbnail based on the title and banner of the page.

Password protection

• Apply a custom password to the published Article View.
• When visiting the public URL, viewers need the password to get access to the published content.
• Accessible only on Tana's paid plans.

Formatting options

Font

• Articles have two text options: Serif and Sans serif
• To set this, open the page formatting options by clicking on the TT button on the right side of the top bar, then select the option you want.

Banner image

• The banner image set for the published node appears at the top of the article and in the automatic thumbnail generated for the published link.
• To remove: right-click the banner image and select Remove banner image.

Node display

Nodes with children become headings (up to 6 levels by indenting)

Options for nodes with children:

• Paragraph: show node as heading, children as paragraphs
• Heading + list: show node as heading, children as bullet list

Options for nodes without children:

• Paragraph: show as paragraph
• Quote: show as quote

Node descriptions appear below the node in smaller, lighter text

Field display

Fields can be displayed in several ways:

• Label + value: Shows the field name and value in a column each (default).
• Heading + paragraph: Shows the field name as heading, and field values as paragraphs.
• Heading + list: Shows the field name as heading, and field values as a bullet list.
• Quote: Shows the field values as quotes
• Paragraph: Shows field values as paragraphs.
• Move to top: Moves the field to the top of the page.

Supported views

The following views work when publishing as article:

• List
• Table (parent node/field names as headers; each child node is a row)
• Cards (parent node as heading; children as cards with fields)
• Tabs (parent node as heading; children as tabs)

Other views are not supported in Article View.

Horizontal line

If you type three dashes, they turn into a horizontal line.

Images, embeds and media

Images

• Images will show up full-width within the content.
• Text on the image node becomes the caption of the image.
• Dozens of images should be fine, hundreds of high-res, heavy images will likely not publish.
• Images are not indexed.

Audio and video

Publishing audio and video files is currently not supported. Consider embedding videos from YouTube and Vimeo.

Embeds

We support the following links:

• Youtube
• Vimeo
• Figma
• Spotify (playlists/albums only)

Article view limitations

Publishing as Article has some limits:

• There's a limit of 5000 nodes that can be published in one page.
• Published pages do not show the values of contextual content/columns.
• Published pages do not show related content or reference sections.
• If a published node is part of the content of a published page, it won't appear when published.