Most designs are saved to livedesign's servers so you can reach them from any device and share them. Offline Mode is the opposite choice: a design saved only in the browser you made it in, that is never stored on the server. It suits private, local-first work, or simply wanting a design that physically never leaves your machine.
Creating a design in This Browser
Offline Mode is chosen per design, so you can keep normal designs and ones in This Browser side by side.
- If you haven't signed in, your new designs start in This Browser. Nothing you try out is sent to our servers until you choose to share it, sync it, or sign in and move it to your account. Everything you make from the New Design screen, and from the links that create a design straight away (a template from the home page, Start Blank), starts in This Browser. Use Sync Design on one if you would rather it went to the server now.
- Once you've signed in, new designs go to your account. To keep one only in this browser, choose Take Offline from its menu (see below).
- The design is written to your browser's own storage (IndexedDB) and opens like any other. A This Browser badge next to its name in the editor, and the matching This Browser pill wherever it is listed (Explorer lists and cards, search results, the Explorer panel and the Trash), mark it so you always know which designs live only in this browser. Hover or focus the pill to read that the design lives only in this browser and that clearing this browser's site data deletes it; click it (in the Explorer lists, the Explorer panel and the Trash) to come back to this guide. The Explorer sidebar's This Browser row lists them all.
A design in This Browser is not synced and not backed up. It lives only in this browser: clearing your site data, or the browser reclaiming storage, will delete it. Keep anything important on the cloud, or export a copy.
What's different
A design in This Browser is a normal design: every editor feature works, including pages, shapes, arrows, tabs, themes, undo/redo, and export. Only the features that need the server are unavailable, because there's no server copy to power them:
- Sharing needs a design on the server. Opening Share on a design in This Browser tells you so and offers Sync Design: press it and the design uploads, and the Share options appear in the same dialog, with no reload. Embeds are unavailable until it is synced, for the same reason.
- Live collaboration and teams don't apply; a design in This Browser is yours alone. Comments still work, but only you see them.
- Images you add are stored inside the design, so it stays fully local.
- Add a Tab to Another Design is unavailable for a design in This Browser in either direction, and Duplicate makes another copy in This Browser rather than uploading one.
- In the Explorer it shows a fixed This Browser picture instead of a thumbnail, because there is no server copy to draw one from.
Moving to and from your account
You can change your mind at any time, from the design's ⋯ menu in the Explorer.
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When you sign in with designs in This Browser, we offer to move them to your account. Every one is ticked; untick any you want to keep in this browser, then Move. Not Now leaves them where they are, and we only ask again when there are more.
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Sync Design (on each design under This Browser, in the Explorer and on the This Browser page, when you're signed in) uploads a design in This Browser to the cloud. From the Explorer, the This Browser page opens and asks you to confirm. It becomes a normal design, shareable and (when you're signed in) reachable from your other devices, and the copy in this browser is removed.
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Take Offline (on a design's menu in the Explorer and the Explorer panel) does the reverse: it downloads a cloud design into this browser and then removes it from your account and every other device. Because that deletes the server copy for good, we ask you to confirm first.
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A tab it shares with other designs (see Add a Tab to Another Design) stays in those designs, and this browser keeps its own copy. From then on the two are separate: edits on one side no longer reach the other, and syncing the design back brings your copy in as a new tab beside the original.
Take Offline is deliberate and irreversible on the server side: once a design is in This Browser it exists only in the browser you took it offline in. If it was shared, taking it offline also revokes the share links, and a team design leaves the team library. For the owner it is a move, not a delete, so it skips the Trash; a teammate taking a team design offline sends the team's copy to the team Trash. A design in This Browser you delete goes to this browser's own Trash.
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