Workflow status
There are three status levels during a workflow..
- Draft
- Published
- Expired
Only published documents are available on the rendered site. This status is not linked to any stage, but is determined by actions. For example, a Publish action will change the status of a document from Draft to Published.
When progressing through a workflow, the status of an item can only change in a linear fashion:
Symbol Details 
Item is not participating in a workflow. 
Item's status is Draft. 
Item's status is Published. 
Item's status is Expired. 
The "lock" symbol indicates that the item has been locked for editing. 
If a workflow stage contains a Publish or Expire action and the Published or Expired date has not yet been reached, the next status will appear as a small button. In this case, an item status is currently Draft, but is scheduled to be Published.
- Draft to Published to Expired.
- Published to Expired.
- Draft to Published.
Users do not require access to a workflow's actions or stages to participate in a workflow. Actions are performed using system access and are not determined by the access of the user who approved/rejected the item.
When progressing through a workflow, you cannot change an item's status from:
- Expired to Draft or Published.
- Published to Draft.
The process of publishing and expiring items
When the status of an item changes to published or expired, this does not mean that the item will have become published or expired in the rendered site. A status of published or expired means that the process of publishing or expiring an item has begun. The actual time a published item will appear on a Web site, or the time an expired item is removed from a Web site, also depends on:
- how long it takes to syndicate updates to the delivery server
- how long it takes for the current cache to expire