Hiding files

The hide and hidefromtoc metadata items let you hide content in different ways.

Hide from search engine indexing using hide

If you set hide to yes, the page is excluded from both external and internal search engines. When you turn on hide, the value of index is automatically set to no in the output file.

If you add hide: yes to the TOC.md file, the entire guide is excluded from external and internal search engine results. The guide is then available only via its URL. This entire guide is hidden from internal and external search.

Hide from TOC using hidefromtoc

To prevent an article from appearing in the left nav, add the article link to the TOC as normal, and add hidefromtoc: yes to the article metadata.

If you set hidefromtoc to yes in an article’s metadata, an article does not appear in the left nav and can be accessed with only direct link. To publish the MD file, you still need to add the article to a TOC.md file. If you also want the file hidden from search, add hide: yes in addition to hidefromtoc: yes.

Example: Syntax under consideration is added to the Resources section of the TOC, but it doesn’t appear in the left navigation when TOC is rendered. When you open this page, nothing is selected in the left navigation.

If all articles in a TOC section are hidden from the TOC, the section is hidden in the left nav.

Examples of hidden files

First, Second, and Third articles are hidden from search engines (hide: yes) and hidden in the TOC (hidefromtoc: yes).

For a demo or test, we set hidefromtoc to no to one of these files, which then exposes the ‘hidden articles’ section in the left navigation. Here’s what these files look like in the TOC:

+ Hidden articles {#hidden}
  + [Hidden article 1](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/authoring-guide/using/hidden/hidden-1.html?lang=en)
  + [Hidden article 2](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/authoring-guide/using/hidden/hidden-2.html?lang=en)
  + [Hidden article 3](https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/authoring-guide/using/hidden/hidden-3.html?lang=en)