Admin - Modifying a Notification in Test Environment

[kallenconsult]

We need to tweak our Customer Order notification -- in a way that involves modifying the Liquid code.  We need to run some tests to make sure we can get the data we need, how to format it, etc.  Since the store is live, obviously we don't want to have our customers get debug email.

If I am in Preview Mode, are the SETTINGS (most relevantly Notifications) in preview mode as well?  If I modify the notification while previewing our dev theme, will that affect the live site?

All input is appreciated!

Scott.