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How to add an article to Yorkshire Voice

Logging in

Type: www.yorkshirevoice.com/wp-admin in your browser URL bar and log in using the username and password provided by your tutor.

Dashboard

The first thing you’ll see is the dashboard.

Here you’ll see recently published posts, comments, and site stats – that’s how many people are looking at your stories.

Add a new post

There are a couple of ways to add a new post.

  1. Hover over the ‘+ New‘ option at the top of the page and choose ‘Post‘.
  2. Hover over ‘Posts‘ in the left-hand menu and choose ‘Add new‘.
  3. Use the ‘Quick Draft‘ box on the dashboard – but this isn’t recommended as you will have very limited options.

Welcome guide

You may get a pop-up that says ‘Welcome to the block editor’.

Getty Images

This is a mini-tutorial.

You should read it as WordPress gets frequent updates, so the pop-up could introduce new tools not mentioned in this guide.

Or you can take a look at WordPress’ own detailed guide to the block editor.

Add a title

The first thing to do is add a headline.

It doesn’t have to be perfect and you will change it once you’ve finished writing your story.

But you need a headline from the start so you can find your post among everyone else’s.

Add your byline

It’s a good idea to add your byline next, so you don’t forget later on, and so it’s clear who’s editing which posts.

Add your name in the Author box.

This will either be at the bottom of the post, or in the right-hand column.

The author box is either at the bottom of the post area or in the right-hand column
  1. Click on the ‘Guest‘ tab.
  2. Add your full name, e.g. Joe Bloggs
  3. Add your Twitter URL, e.g. https://twitter.com/joebloggs
  4. Add a brief bio, e.g. Joe is a journalist for Yorkshire Voice
  5. Add your profile picture – make sure you save the filename as firstname-lastname.jpg, e.g. joe-bloggs.jpg.

You’ll need to fill this box in for each new post, but once your profile picture is in the media library you’ll be able to add it without uploading a new one.

All posts must have a featured image before they are published; the look of the website depends on these so it’s vital to get this right.

This should be a high quality photograph that represents your story.

It must be in landscape orientation with a ratio of 6:4, e.g. 1200 pixels by 800 pixels.

Add your featured image using the ‘Featured image‘ section in the right-hand column.

If you can’t see the right-hand column, click the settings cog icon next to ‘Publish’.

  1. Click ‘Set featured image‘.
  2. Click on ‘Upload files‘
  3. Upload your image (cropped to the right size/orientation and saved with a descriptive filename)
  4. Add ‘Alt text‘ – this should describe what’s in the image for someone who can’t see it.
  5. Add ‘Credit‘ – this should be the name of the person who took the image, or detailed copyright information such as the Creative Commons licence.
  6. Add ‘Credit URL‘ – if the image is from social media, Flickr or Unsplash, for example, add a link to the original image
  7. Click ‘Set featured image‘

If you really can’t get your own image for a story, try exploring the Instant Images – in the left-hand menu, go to Media, then Instant Images. But remember these may need amending to 6:4 ration to get the correct size.

Yorkshire Voice

Categories

Add the relevant categories for your story in the ‘Categories’ section in the right-hand column.

Excerpt

The excerpt is the summary of your story that appears on the homepage of Leeds Now.

Add it in the right-hand column beneath the Featured image section.

Keep saving

Make sure you save your work regularly.

This is a good time to click ‘Save draft‘.

Write your article

Now write your story.

If you want to add a link or make text bold, select the text and a small pop-up should appear.

This pop-up will appear at times, allowing you to make text bold or turn it into a link

Understanding blocks

WordPress lets you add content using different types of blocks.

The default block is Paragraph, which is for general writing. This is what you’ll use to write your copy.

Click the + symbol on a new line to add a different type of block.

The most common ones will appear, but click ‘Browse all’ to see what’s available.

You can bring your story to life using various WordPress blocks

Here you will find all sorts of content types, including:

  • Heading
  • Image
  • Pullquote
  • Map
  • Embeds for lots of different media

Hover over a block-type and it’ll give you a brief description so you can see if it’s what you need.

WordPress will show you an example and description of each block

You can also search for the block you need.

Type in ‘Soundcloud’ to embed audio from Soundcloud, for example.

Preview

You should preview your work regularly so you can see what it’ll look like when its published.

Click ‘Preview‘ and ‘Preview in a new tab‘.

Final checks

When your final draft is ready you need to do several checks but please do not publish until you have been given the go-ahead by your tutor.

  1. Preview it and read it through.
  2. Sub-edit it – correct any mistakes, rewrite sentences that aren’t clear.
  3. Add in sub-headings and pullquotes.
  4. Get someone else to read it – they will spot things you’ve missed.
  5. Make sure you’ve got a featured image, byline, excerpt, at least one category, and all your images have the right copyright credit.

Click SAVE AS DRAFT and let your tutor know it’s ready to be looked at. Once your tutor gives you the go-ahead, click ‘Publish‘.