robard,

you need to mark them as drafts.

if you know what apache, php, or mysql is, check out:
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=14148

If you don't, then simply use the drafts on the right-side column. Once you are done, mark them as Published.

There are other options. if you know what live writer is or scribefire is. then see: http://manual.b2evolution.net/Desktop_Blogging_Tools. ScriberFire works beautifully. I use it all the time. But you must know what you are doing otherwise, you are going to have more questions.

Hi robarc,

Welcome to the forums.

Most of us have a local server (on their desktop computer). To set this up is the topic of this post: http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=13698 .
Another option is to hide the blog in an obscure folder, like /dev/. You can set the blog up and when finished, you simply copy all the files from the /dev/ folder to their final destination. I'll tel you how to change the $baseurl variable in the file /conf/_basic_config.php when you are ready for that.

Good luck

Thanks, esanchez and Afwas, for your responses, but -- like the guy who started the thread esanchez provided -- I'm dumb and don't follow a lot of this. I do get the idea about setting up the blog in another directory and then copying it over; I'll give that a try. How would I get into it, though? Told you I'm dumb...

If you're using Cpanel hosting, you can password protect a folder during your testing phase.

Follow the help instructions of your web hosting on how to password protect web folders. In CPanel it's quite easy to set it up.

An easy approach would be to create a index.html page with whatever you want in it. The index.html is read before the index.php or default.php so only you know thet the blog is there and can work with it until ready. When the time comes, just delete the index.html

That is what I did by accident, I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on and then I noticed the index.htm file. I think that would be the easiest method for someone who isn't sure of themselves creating and deleting folder contents.