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Show/hide navigation items

Keep your guidelines clean, focused, and easy to navigate.

Updated today

Control what appears in your guideline navigation by showing or hiding documents, document groups, and libraries. This helps you create a more intentional structure, reduce clutter, and avoid confusing empty states.



Why use show/hide?

As guidelines grow, navigation can quickly become crowded or inconsistent. Not every document needs to be visible at all times.

Show/hide gives you control to:

  • Reduce clutter in navigation

  • Prevent empty or incomplete content from being visible

  • Create a more curated, intentional guideline experience

  • Improve usability for large and complex guideline setups



What you can control

With show/hide, you can manage visibility across multiple levels:

  • Documents – Hide individual documents from navigation

  • Document groups – Hide entire groups to simplify structure

  • Libraries – Control visibility of full library sections

  • Empty documents – Automatically hidden by default

This ensures a consistent experience across your entire guideline structure.


What makes this different?

Previously, visibility was tied to cover page logic or publishing states, which often led to inconsistent behavior.

Now, visibility is:

  • Explicit – You decide what’s shown or hidden

  • Consistent – Works the same across documents, groups, and libraries

  • Independent – Not tied to whether content is published

  • Predictable – No more unexpected empty states in navigation



When to use show/hide

This feature is especially useful when structuring or maintaining guidelines over time.

Common use cases

  • Hide documents used as homepages
    Keep navigation clean while still using documents as entry points.

  • Hide documents with unpublished content
    Avoid exposing incomplete or work-in-progress pages.

  • Simplify large navigation structures
    Hide less relevant sections to focus users on what matters.

  • Clean up empty groups
    Automatically remove empty document groups from view.

  • Manage targeted content
    Hide documents that are only meant for specific audiences.



How to show or hide items

  1. Open your guideline as an editor or owner

  2. Navigate to the document, group, or library

  3. Open the settings panel

  4. Toggle Show in navigation on or off

  5. Changes apply instantly to the navigation



Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  1. Does hiding a document unpublish it?
    No. Hidden documents remain accessible via direct link and are still fully published.

  2. Who can control visibility?
    Guideline owners and editors.

  3. What happens to empty documents or groups?
    They are hidden by default to avoid clutter and confusion.

  4. Can I still link to hidden content?
    Yes, hidden items can still be accessed and shared directly.



Ready to clean up your navigation?

Start by reviewing your guideline structure and hiding anything that doesn’t need to be front and center. A cleaner navigation helps your team find the right content faster, and creates a better overall experience.

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