Write and publish a blog article

Find your way around

Open Dashboard → Blog. The publisher has two screens.

Articles lists everything in your publication. Each row shows the title, its address, the status, how many times a published article has been read, and when it last changed. Use it to find work quickly:

The tabs across the top switch between All, Published, Scheduled, Drafts, and Archived. The number beside each tab is the real total, not just what is on the current page. Archived only appears when older archived articles still exist.
The search box matches the title or the address. Press / anywhere on the screen to jump into it.
The sort menu offers recently updated, recently published, title, and most read.
Select a row anywhere, or its title, to open that article in the editor.
The ⋯ button on a row opens the actions for that article: open it, view the live version, copy its public link, publish or unpublish it, feature it on the blog home page, or delete it permanently.
Tick the boxes on the left to select several articles, then publish, unpublish, or delete them in one step from the bar that appears. Each article is handled on its own, so one that cannot change (for example, one your role does not cover) is reported without stopping the rest.
Published articles show a small 30-day trend next to their view count, so a recent lift or drop is visible at a glance.
Feature on blog home pins a published article to the large card at the top of the public Journal, marked Featured. Choose Remove from featured to return the spot to the newest article.

Publication holds the settings shared by every article: authors, media, redirects, API keys, and who can use the publisher. Activity shows a log of saves, publishes, and deletions for owners and administrators.

If Blog is not available after signing in, ask a Fetchply administrator or a publication owner to grant you a blog role. Owners manage this under Publication → Access; choose the smallest role the person needs, or select Remove when access is no longer required.

Start an article

Select New article. The title is the only required field. Select Save draft to create the article, and the address changes to include the article ID so you can bookmark it or send it to someone else with publisher access.

The article address is suggested from the title. You can shorten it under Details before publishing.

The header keeps you oriented while you write: the current status, and whether you have Unsaved changes or everything is Saved. Press Ctrl/Cmd + S to save without leaving the keyboard. If you try to close the tab with unsaved text, your browser asks you to confirm.

You rarely need to save by hand once an article exists: the editor autosaves a few seconds after you pause typing. A brand-new article is created only when you save it yourself, so nothing appears in the Articles list before you decide. The editor also keeps a local backup of unsaved changes in your browser; if a tab closes or your connection drops mid-write, reopening the article offers to restore those changes or discard them. The backup lives only in that browser, so it cannot recover work from a different device.

The three tabs are:

Write: the title, summary, tags, cover image, and the article body.
Review: search and answer-engine suggestions for this article. Each suggestion is clickable and takes you to where it can be fixed: the exact spot in the article, or the Details panel for things like the summary.
Versions: every saved version, with the option to see what changed and restore one. The comparison shows removed lines as well as added ones, so you can see exactly what a save replaced.

Select Details in the header when you need the article address, author, categories, series, cover image, search settings, or AI access controls. The panel opens above your writing and scrolls itself into view, and the button changes to Hide details so you can close it again. If you are on another tab, selecting Details returns you to Write and opens it there.

Use the formatting bar

The formatting bar always works where you are typing:

Nothing selected. The formatting is inserted at the cursor with sample text already highlighted, so you can type straight over it. Blocks such as a code block, callout, FAQ, or divider open on their own line below the line you are on, never in the middle of a sentence.
Text selected. The selection is converted. Select a few words for Bold, Italic, Inline code, or Link; select whole lines for Heading, Bulleted list, Numbered list, or Quote; select a passage for Code block, Callout, FAQ, or Takeaways and it is wrapped in that block.
Selecting a link. If the selected text is already a web address, it becomes the link target and the wording is highlighted for you to replace. Otherwise the selected words become the wording and the address is highlighted.
Applying the same action twice. Selecting formatted text and choosing the same action again removes it, so Bold on bold text makes it plain again and Bulleted list on a list turns it back into normal lines.
Converting between blocks. Choosing a different line format replaces the current one, so a bulleted list becomes a numbered list or a heading in one step.
Images. Choose the image button to upload a picture at the cursor. You can also paste or drag an image straight into the canvas. After the upload, the image description is left selected so you can type a real description straight away instead of publishing a placeholder. If an upload fails, a message above the canvas explains why; your writing is unaffected.
Named blocks. Callout, FAQ, Takeaways, and Steps are available as buttons, and you can also type / in the canvas to pick one from the list.

Numbered lists are renumbered from one, and any indentation you use is kept.

Formatting buttons apply to the writing canvas, so they are unavailable while Preview is showing. The preview shows the article exactly as it will publish, at the same width and with the same treatment readers see, including framed code samples and section links. Switch back to Edit to keep formatting.

On a wide screen, choose Split to write and see the live preview side by side; formatting keeps working in the left pane. The preview also offers a Phone width toggle that narrows the article to a phone-sized column, so you can check how headings and images wrap on small screens. Split view is unavailable on narrow windows, where the two panes would not fit.

Add optional details

The body, summary, author, categories, tags, series, images, and search details are all optional. Add the ones that help your readers:

Write a short summary that helps readers decide whether the article answers their question.
Add an author by entering the author address listed under Publication → Authors.
Add up to three categories and twelve tags, separated by commas. New categories and tags are created for you the first time you use them.
When an article belongs to a sequence, choose its series and position.
Add a clear description for the cover image and every image in the article. Descriptions are never filled in for you. Describe the information the image gives a reader; do not repeat the file name.

To stop showing a cover image, open Details → Cover image, choose Remove, then save the article.

Add an author

Open Publication → Authors, enter the person's name, and select Save author. You can set a shorter address and a short bio. Fetchply then shows the address to copy into the Authors field of an article.

Authors are optional. Owners, administrators, and editors can add them.

Preview and publish

Select Preview to open a private link that works for 24 hours. You can preview a saved draft, a scheduled article, or the current saved version of a published article. Preview links are meant for reviewers and never appear in search results.

Select Publish whenever the article is ready. The Review tab offers suggestions, and those suggestions do not block publishing.

To publish later, open the ⋯ menu and choose Schedule publication. Pick a date and time in your own time zone, up to two years ahead. The article stays a draft until then and shows as Scheduled, with the planned time in the Articles list. On a scheduled article the header offers Publish now, and Cancel schedule returns it to a draft.

Update a published article

Edit a published article as usual, then select Republish. The article is saved and the live version refreshes in one step, so readers see your changes without you unpublishing first. Save on a published article does the same thing and confirms with “Changes saved and published”, so nothing waits in a hidden state.

Choose Unpublish in the ⋯ menu when an article should come off the site and become a draft again. The menu only offers actions that apply to the current status.

Rename an article

Changing the address of a previously published article sends old bookmarks to the new address automatically. You can add more of these under Publication → Redirects: enter the old address and the address of the article that now answers for it.

Delete an article

Deleting is permanent. There is no archive and no recycle bin.

Choose Delete permanently from the ⋯ menu, in the editor header, or on the row in the Articles list. Fetchply asks you to confirm and tells you what goes away: the article, its saved versions, and its view count. A published article stops being available to readers straight away, and search engines are asked to drop it.

To remove several at once, tick their boxes in the Articles list and select Delete permanently. Copy anything you may want later before you confirm.

Only owners, administrators, and editors can delete any article. Authors can delete their own articles when their role allows it; if the action is refused, ask an owner.

Troubleshooting

An article will not save or publish

Make sure the title is not empty, then try again. All other fields may be left empty. If you entered an optional value, it still needs to be valid: an author address must exist, a canonical address must be a complete secure web address, and uploaded media must use a supported format. The message names the field that needs attention. Correct the value or remove it, save, then publish again.

My edits are not showing on the live article

Open the article and select Republish. Wait for the confirmation, then reload the public article in a private window, because your browser may still be showing a cached copy. If the status in the header reads Draft, the article is not live at all: select Publish.

I deleted the wrong article

Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. Write the article again, and reuse the old address if the address still matters for links; if the address is refused, check Publication → Redirects for an entry still pointing at it.

Delete is refused

Your role does not allow deleting that article. Ask a publication owner or administrator to remove it.

An image will not upload

Use a PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, or AVIF image no larger than 25 MB. If the service is temporarily unavailable, your unsaved writing stays in the editor; retry the image after a moment, then save.

The cover image is missing after reopening an article

Reopen the article and check Details → Cover image. If the area is empty, the image was never saved with the article; upload it again and save. Uploading the same file twice does not create a duplicate, so it is safe to retry.

The activity log is empty or unavailable

Activity is available to publication owners and administrators only. Other roles see a short note instead of the log. The Review tab inside an article works for everyone.

I cannot add an author

Only owners, administrators, and editors can add authors. Ask one of them to add the author under Publication → Authors, then enter the address it lists.

The article address is already taken

Choose a different address. If the address belongs to an older published article, check Publication → Redirects before reusing it so existing bookmarks do not break.

An edit was interrupted

Reopen the article in the same browser. If unsaved changes were backed up, a bar above the editor offers to Restore changes; choose it, check the text, and save. Saved versions are always kept under the Versions tab. The backup is stored in the browser you were writing in, so it is not offered on another device.

Autosave reports a failure

Your latest keystrokes are still in the editor and in the local backup. Check your connection and select Save yourself. If saving keeps failing, the message names what needs attention — most often an expired session, fixed by signing in again in another tab.