Intro to the Post Edit Screen

For publishing story content in Largo, you're going to use the Post Edit screen. The post edit screen contains standard WordPress fields in the main area (like Title and Text), and a number of panels on the right side of the screen for managing the post's categories, tags, and other settings we'll cover in the pages that follow.

To begin writing a new post, in the dashboard click on Posts and then Add New. You'll see this:

Note the main fields are the Title (where it says "Enter title here") and the main text field where you enter the text of your post.

To the right are the Publish, Categories, and Tag panels. Below are a number of other fields and panels you'll become familiar with very quickly.

If any fields or panels aren't visible, check the Screen Options tab in the upper-right to see if something has been deselected. Screen Options allow you to customize the Post Edit screen by hiding things you don't need.

Title Field

The title is the headline of your story or post. Notice that it also becomes the "slug" in the permalink (i.e. the URL) for the post's web page:

Text Field

The Text field is the main canvas for creating your post. This is where you add and format text, links, images, and other media. If you're familiar with WordPress or other WYSIWYG editors, or even word processing software like Microsoft Word, most of the tools in the Text field will be familiar.

Publish Panel

The Publish panel is how you publish your post or save it as a draft for further work before publishing. You can also use the Publish panel to control visibility and schedule post for later publishing:

While you're working on a post, WordPress will auto-save it at regular intervals (as long as the Title is filled out). You can also hit the Save Draft button any time to save the state of your work.

Use the Preview Button for a Live View of the Post Before Publishing

As you work on the post, you can use the Save Draft and Preview buttons as needed to see how the post is coming along. You can see the post but your audience can't until it's been published. Draft posts are only visible to logged-in users.

When you're ready to make the post live to the rest of the world, you can just hit the Publish button. To view the post you can either click the Permalink or the View Post link at the top of the Dashboard.

Excerpt Field

Use the Excerpt field to enter a short introduction or summary of the post for display on the Homepage and other landing pages:

The Home page, and other Landing pages including Category, Tag, Series, and Author pages, will display a number of post titles, excerpts, and thumbnails, with links to the post pages for each:

The Excerpt should be written to draw the reader's interest in clicking to read the full post. After all, that's the point of your hard work!

Add Media and Featured Media

The Add Media button allows you to add images and other media inside the body of the post:

In addition, the Featured Image panel allows placing a large "hero" image at the top of the post, and automatically creates a thumbnail image for the post on the homepage and other landing pages:

Adding media to posts is covered in detail in the Media section of this guide.

Categories, Tags, and Other Largo Taxonomies

WordPress provides a standard way to organize posts by Categories and Tags. These are referred to in WordPress as Taxonomies. Largo adds several other taxonomies, like Series which allows you to create a multi-part series or project, and Post Prominence which allows you to feature posts on the homepage and other parts of the site. We cover these in detail on the Categories and Tags, and the Largo Custom Taxonomies pages of this guide.