Your course page: search and preview

Your course's public page is where a stranger decides. It now does three things beyond listing the lessons: it puts your trailer (or cover image) right beside the enrol button, it shows a strip of real moments from inside the teaching, and it lets a visitor search everything you say in the lessons - and jump to the exact second you say it.

The top of the page

The trailer sits beside the title, the price and the enrol button - one glance covers "what is this" and "how do I get it". If the course has no trailer, the cover image stands in. You don't arrange any of this; it's how every course page is laid out.

A look inside

Below the syllabus, visitors see a row of small pictures cut from your free preview lesson - one per chapter. Each one jumps to that moment in the preview, so a visitor can taste the actual teaching before deciding. The strip builds itself from the preview lesson's chapters: no chapters, no strip. Adding chapters to the preview video is the one lever that turns it on.

Modules at a glance

When your lessons are organised into sections, the page shows a grid of numbered cards just under the top - one per section, with its title, how many lessons it holds and roughly how long they run. It gives a stranger the shape of the whole course in one look, before they ever scroll the syllabus. The grid comes straight from your sections, so keeping those tidy is all it takes.

Search the course

If your lessons have transcripts, the page carries a "Search the course" drawer. Open it, type a word or a phrase, and each result shows the lesson, the moment, and a line of what's said there - clicking it opens the lesson at that exact second. It's your own teaching answering, which is a stronger pitch than any blurb.

Two boundaries worth knowing. Search only speaks for courses that are live on your site - drafts and hidden courses say nothing. And it only ever gives away a snippet: the full lesson still sits behind whatever door the course has, so a paid course stays paid.

The prompt

Show me how my [course name] course page looks to a visitor, and tell me whether the search box and the look-inside strip are showing.

Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.

Questions people ask

Why doesn't my course page show the search box?
The search box only appears once at least one lesson has a transcript. Transcripts are made automatically when bernard indexes a lesson's video - so if your videos are hosted on bernard and have been indexed, you're set. Courses whose videos live on YouTube or Vimeo don't have transcripts here yet, so the box stays away rather than sitting there unable to answer.
Can strangers read my paid lessons through search?
No. A search result is a short snippet - a sentence or two around the match - plus a link to the moment in the lesson. Clicking through still meets the normal door: preview lessons play for anyone, paid lessons ask the visitor to enrol. Snippets only come from courses that are live on your site, never drafts or hidden ones.
Where do the pictures in the look-inside strip come from?
From your free preview lesson's chapters. Each chapter's thumbnail becomes a card, and clicking one jumps straight to that moment in the preview. If the preview lesson has no chapters yet, the strip stays hidden - add chapters to the video and it appears on its own.
Where does the modules grid come from?
From your course's own sections. When your lessons are organised into sections, the page shows one card per section - a number, the section title, how many lessons it holds and roughly how long they run. No sections, no grid; organise the lessons into sections and it appears on its own.
Do these page changes need my approval?
The layout itself is how every course page renders, so there's nothing to approve there. Anything that changes your course's content - lessons, prices, descriptions - still goes through the usual approve-before-publish flow, and you can undo it the same way as any other change.

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