# Posts Blog posts: writing them, sorting them, crediting an author, and putting the newest on your homepage. Source: https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/posts/ **Add-on** Posts is an add-on, so not every website has it. If it is not in your menu, see [Add-ons](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/billing/add-ons/) to add it. Posts are the writing on your website. News, tips, a story from a job. One entry is one post. Every post you publish gets a page of its own. The newest ones show on your Blog page. Go to **Content**, then **Website**, then **Posts**. ## What goes in a post Click **Add New** to start one. Only the title is required. Leave a box empty and your website leaves that bit out. | Box | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Post title** | The name of the post. It is the heading on the post's own page. | | **Featured image** | A photo. It runs full width across the top of the post. | | **Excerpt** | One or two lines. It shows on your Blog page and in the feed. | | **Post** | The words. Type plain text, or add blocks the way you do on a page. | | **Author** | The person on your team who wrote it. See below. | | **Featured** | A switch. It picks the lead post on your Blog page. | | **Search & social** | How the post looks in Google and when it is shared. | **Post** takes the same blocks a page takes, plus photos, videos and more. [Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/) shows how. [What Google shows](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/#what-google-shows) covers **Search & social** and the **SEO** boxes. Categories and tags are not in the form. They sit in the **Settings** panel on the right. See [Categories and tags](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/posts/#categories-and-tags) below. ## Writing and publishing 1. Click **Add New**. 2. Fill in **Post title**. 3. Write the post in **Post**. 4. Click **Save** as you go. **Save** stores your work. No visitor sees it. 5. When it is ready, click **Publish now**, then **Publish now** again to confirm. **Publish now** puts the post on your website that second. [Saving and publishing](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/start-here/saving-and-publishing/) covers both buttons. ## The date on a post There is no date box in the form. Your website stamps the date when you click **Publish now**. That is the date readers see, and your Blog page lists posts newest first by it. You can change it later. Open the post, then open the **Settings** panel. Under **Publish**, click **Publication date**. Pick a new day and time, then click **Save date**. The post's date changes on your website. This is handy for a post you wrote long ago. Publish it, then set the date to when it really happened. ## The author **Author** credits one person on your team with the post. Click the box and pick a name. The list comes from your [Team](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/team/) page. With a name picked, the post shows "By" and the name under the title. An **About the author** box with their photo and a few lines from their bio sits under the post. Their own team page lists what they wrote. Leave it on **- No author -** and no name shows at all. **Important** A team member who is still a draft shows with "(draft)" after their name. Pick them and nothing shows until you publish their team page. The **Settings** panel also has a **Bylines** part and an **Ownership** part. Neither one shows on your website. Use **Author**. [Bylines](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/bylines/) explains the difference. ## Categories and tags Categories and tags sort your posts into groups. A visitor can click one and see every post in it. - A **category** is a big topic, such as "Kitchens". A category can sit inside another one, such as "Kitchens" inside "Remodels". - A **tag** is a small label, such as "Budget" or "DIY". A post can have a few. To give a post one: 1. Save the post at least once. The box only shows on a saved post. 2. Open the **Settings** panel on the right. 3. Find **Categories** or **Tags**, under **Taxonomies**. 4. Click the box and pick one from the list. To make a new one, type its name and click the **Create** line under it. Only Editors and Admins can make new ones. **Warning** A category or tag saves the moment you pick it. It does not wait for **Publish changes**. On a post that is already live, visitors see the change right away. To take one off, click the small cross on it. Every category and every tag gets a page of its own on your website. It lists all the posts in it. Rename one, add a line about it, or delete it under **Categories** and **Tags**. See [Categories](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/categories/) and [Tags](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/tags/). Use the same few on every post. Ten tags across twenty posts helps nobody. ## Featured, and the lead post **Featured** is a switch near the bottom of the form. Turn it on and the post can lead your Blog page. The newest post with the switch on sits at the top, in a wide panel with its photo. The rest follow in a list. Turn it on for two posts and the newer one leads. ## What people see **Your Blog page.** Across the top sits a row of chips: **All**, then one for each category and tag your posts use. Each chip opens that category's or that tag's own page. Then comes the lead panel, then a list of posts. Each row shows the date, how long the post takes to read, the title, the excerpt and its categories and tags. Rows carry no photo. Reading time is counted from your words, at about 200 words a minute. With nothing published yet, the page reads "No posts published yet." **A post's own page.** The photo runs full width across the top. Then the title, the author, the date, the reading time and the excerpt, then your words. Down the side sits a strip with the date, the reading time, the categories and the tags. Under those come the side panels, which you choose on the [Article Sidebar](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/plugins/article-sidebar/) page. Out of the box that is **On this page** and **Written by**. **On this page** is a list of the headings in your post. A visitor clicks one to jump to it. It shows when a post has two or more Heading 2 or Heading 3 lines. On a phone it folds up above the post. At the foot come the **About the author** box, any comments, and **Continue reading**, which offers three more posts. ## Comments Visitors can leave a comment under a post. Comments are off until an Admin turns them on for posts. See [Content Types](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/admin/content-types/#turning-on-comments). Once they are on, new comments wait for you under **Comments**. [Comments](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/comments/) shows how to approve them. ## The feed Your website also has a feed, at `/rss.xml`. Readers and apps use it to follow you. There is nothing to set up and nothing to switch on. The feed carries the title, the date and the excerpt of each post. A post with no excerpt gives the feed nothing to show, so write one. ## The Latest posts block A block puts recent posts on any page, such as your homepage. Open the page under **Content**, then **Pages**, and add the **Latest posts** block. It sits under **Sections**. | Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | **Headline** | A heading above the posts. | | **Subheadline** | A line under that heading. | | **Which posts** | **All posts**, or **Featured only**. | | **Maximum posts to show** | A number, such as 3. | | **Layout** | **List** is plain rows. **Lead post + list** makes the first one big. | With **Lead post + list**, the first post in the block is the big one. That is the newest post the block picked, whether or not its **Featured** switch is on. The block shows nothing until you have published a post. ## Putting Blog in your menu Nothing links to your Blog page out of the box. Add the link yourself. 1. Go to **Plugins**, then **Site Layout**, then **Navigation**. 2. Pick **Primary Navigation** in the menu box at the top. 3. Click **Add item**. 4. Type `Blog` as the **Label** and `/blog` as the **URL**. 5. Click **Save**. The link is live as soon as you save. [Menus](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/menus/) covers that screen. ## The Blog page itself The list of posts is built for you. The page around it is yours. Go to **Content**, then **Pages**, and open the entry named **Blog**. Blocks you add there show above the list. The page's **SEO** boxes are there too. [Pages](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/content/pages/) covers both. ## Before you launch Your website came with one post, to show you the shape of one. Its title starts with **EXAMPLE**. It came with one example category and two example tags too. **Warning** Do not launch with that post live. It is on your Blog page and in your feed, and it tells the reader to replace it. Open it and write your own post over it, or click **Move to Trash** to take it off your website. Then delete the example category and tags. See [Categories](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/categories/) and [Tags](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/manage/tags/). [Replace the examples](https://docs.lookoutridgeit.com/setup/replace-the-examples/) covers the rest of the sample content.