Every preview you open in Poet runs in debug mode. It is not something you switch on; it is how previews work.
Debug mode gives you a set of tools for testing a course — jump to any page, force a branch, switch theme or language, reveal the correct answers — without affecting the course itself or recording anything against a learner.
How to tell you are in a preview
Two things mark the screen, and both are deliberate.
A red banner, top left: DEMO MODE / DATA CAPTURE: OFF
A debug bar along the bottom, showing:
- DEBUG — opens the debug panel
- The current theme
- The current language
- The course ID
- The build reference — a long string like release-3.0.0-20260921-45b8acae5f
If you can see either of these, nothing you do is being recorded. Scores, completion and progress all go nowhere. That is the point of a preview, but it also means a preview is never evidence that a learner completed anything.
Opening a preview
- In the course editor, select Preview Course.
- The Course Build dialog opens. If there is no build yet it says so — select Build Preview and wait. Larger courses take a minute or two.
- Once it reports Build Complete, choose Internal Preview → Open.
Internal Preview is marked Login required — only people with a Poet account can open it.
There is also a Public Shareable Link, marked No login required, which you generate separately. See Previewing for the difference, and treat the public link with care: it is an unauthenticated URL to your content.
The debug panel
Select DEBUG in the bottom bar, or press Ctrl + Alt + D D (Ctrl + Opt + D D on a Mac).
Nothing you change here touches your course. The panel says so itself: "Changes to the settings in the debug window are temporary for each debug session and will not be applied to your course build. Settings will reset if the page is refreshed or a new course build is created."
This is the most useful thing to know about debug mode. You can turn everything on, break the course completely, refresh, and be back where you started.
The panel has two tabs: Pages & Settings & Branching Data
Pages & Settings Tab
Course Details — Client ID, Game Play ID, Course ID and Version Number. Quote these when raising a support ticket; they identify exactly which build you were looking at.
Settings — the controls that change how the course behaves for this session only:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Answers | Marks the correct answers in activities. On by default. |
| Preserve Topic Order | Stops adaptive reordering, so topics appear in the order you built them. On by default. |
| Unlock All Categories | Opens every category without completing the ones before |
| Disable ShowIfs | Ignores conditional rules, so every page shows regardless of variables |
| Skip Videos | Skips video playback — useful when checking a long course |
| Disable Custom Delays | Removes built-in waits |
| Animation Disabled, Animation Speed, Global Layered Assets Animation Speed | Turn animation off or change its pace. |
| Audio Volume | Volume for this session |
| Theme, Dark Theme Mode | Preview the course in a different theme. |
| Language | Preview in a different language |
| Create artificial translations | Generates placeholder translated text to check how layouts cope with longer strings before real translations exist |
| Show Layout Switcher | Shows the layout switching control |
| Bottom Navigation Bar Disabled, Course Header Title Enabled | Toggle player furniture |
| Hide English Language | Removes English from the language picker |
| Bookmark data | Shows the bookmark/resume data for this session |
Two of these are on by default — Show Answers and Preserve Topic Order. Worth knowing, because it means a preview does not behave like a real learner's course. Correct answers are marked, and the adaptive sequencing is switched off. If you are checking how the course actually adapts, turn both off first.
Pages — every page in the course, listed with its title, type, position and page ID. Filter with the tabs along the top: Language Selection · Start · Assessments · Category Selection · Sending Score · Dashboard · Congratulations · Theme Testing · All Activities.
Each row shows the page's ID (for example CATEGORY1TOPIC1START_BTS_LSI_5) and, where one applies, its ShowIf condition and the variable behind it. This is the quickest way to answer "why isn't this page appearing?" — the condition is written next to the page.
Select a page to jump straight to it.
Branching Data Tab
"Configure the Variable & Show If answer options to review a specific branched path in the course or to navigate directly to branched content."
A dropdown for each variable in your course. Set them to the answers you want to test, and the course behaves as it would for a learner who answered that way — without you having to work through the questions to get there.
The current variable state is shown as data above the dropdowns, so you can confirm what the course thinks it knows.
Keyboard shortcuts
Hold Ctrl + Alt (PC) or Ctrl + Opt (Mac) and press the key twice:
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| D D | Open or close the debug menu |
| S S | Jump to After All Categories |
| A A | Mark correct/wrong answers. |
| F F | Show all answer feedback. |
| ] ] / [ [ | Cycle forward/backward through themes. |
| > > / < < | Cycle forward/backward through translations. |
The shortcut list is also printed at the foot of the debug panel, so you do not need to remember it.
What debug mode is not for
It is not a way to test tracking. Data capture is off. If you need to confirm that scores reach your LMS, that is a job for a SCORM Test Package in a real LMS — see What you can download and what to send your LMS.
It is not what your learners see. Show Answers and Preserve Topic Order are on by default, the debug bar is visible, and the demo banner sits over the content.