Publishing turns the current draft into the active revision. It is an explicit governance action: the owner and visibility must be valid, and the resulting revision becomes the version internal answers can treat as authoritative.
Draft
Editable working content.
Publish
Validate ownership and access.
Active revision
The governing version used by retrieval.
New draft
Future changes continue separately.
Before publishing
Confirm that the title and opening state the rule, the owner is the right accountable person, and Role visibility does not exclude people who must follow it. Resolve every open comment thread — publishing is refused while one is open. Supporting discussion can remain in the collaboration history.
What publishing creates
The published content becomes an immutable Standard revision. The Standard points to that revision as active. This separation makes it possible to prove what the organization had in force at an earlier time.
Update an active Standard
Edit a new draft rather than altering the active revision in place. When the change is ready, publish again. The new revision becomes active, while the previous revision stays in history.
Publication and answers
What retrieval reads follows the active revision. There can be a short processing period before a new revision is available to every answer path. Use the status shown in the product rather than assuming that saving the editor changed retrieval immediately.
If the rule should stop governing without a replacement, unpublish or archive it.