How a published article appears

Once an article is published it appears on your public Journal. The reader layout is built for you, so nothing here needs setting up. This page explains which of your fields drive which part of the page, so you can write with the result in mind.

The Journal home page

The most recent article takes the large card at the top, marked Latest article. Everything after it appears in the grid below.
Each card shows the publish date, reading time, title, a short summary, the first author, and one topic.
The summary on a card is your subtitle. If an article has no subtitle, the excerpt is used instead. Keeping subtitles under about two lines avoids trimming.
Cards use the featured image. Articles without one still look correct: the card simply leads with the text.

Topics

The bar under the site header lists the topics readers can browse, followed by a search box. Topics come from the tags on your most recent articles, and the six most-used tags are shown.

Practical effects worth knowing:

Tags are how readers move sideways through related writing, so reuse the same tag spelling across articles instead of inventing a new variation each time.
A tag used once will rarely appear in the bar. Readers can still reach it from the tag links on an article.
The first tag on an article also names the middle step of the trail at the top of the article, for example Journal › Support › Your title. Put the tag that best describes the subject first.

The article page

A thin progress line at the very top of the window shows how far through the article the reader is.
Your title, subtitle, authors, publish date, and reading time sit above the featured image.
If an article is edited more than a day after publishing, readers also see an Updated date. Small same-day corrections do not add one.
Your second- and third-level headings become the On this page list beside the article, and it highlights the section being read. On phones and small tablets the list becomes a collapsed On this page button above the article. An article with no headings simply has no list, so use headings to break up anything longer than a few screens.
Author names, and the short author biography from Publication → Authors, appear again at the end of the article.
Every tag is listed under Filed under at the end, and each one links to that topic.

Named blocks

The named blocks in the formatting bar (and the / menu) each publish with their own treatment. Nothing extra is needed to switch them on.

Callout. A tinted panel with an icon, for a short aside. Four tones are available: the default note, plus tip, warning, and critical. Pick the tone from the / menu, or add it yourself after the block name, for example :::callout{.warning}. An unknown tone falls back to the default note. Give the callout a heading line if you want a bold title above the text.
Steps. A numbered process. Each item gets a numbered marker joined by a guide line, and the first line of each step is emphasised, so keep it short and put the detail underneath. Use it only for things done in order.
FAQ. One question per block. Consecutive question blocks join into a single list, so write several in a row rather than one big block.
Takeaways. A summary panel with ticked items. Best near the top or the very end, with three to five short lines.
Video. Enter the video identifier from the YouTube address, the part after v=. The article shows the video's own picture with a play button that opens the video on YouTube in a new tab. If the identifier is wrong the block is left out of the page rather than showing a broken picture.
Contents. Adds a compact list of the article's own headings at that point in the page, on top of the list beside the article. It fills itself from your headings, so it can never fall out of date. An article without headings leaves the block out.

Titles inside these blocks can still be linked to directly, but they stay out of the On this page list, which follows your main headings only.

Code samples

Code blocks publish inside a frame with the language named on the left and a Copy button on the right. Add the language after the opening fence, for example ```typescript, to get the label and colouring. Shell, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, JSON, Markdown, SQL, and TypeScript are recognised; anything else is shown as plain code. Long lines scroll sideways inside the frame instead of stretching the page, and readers can scroll them with the keyboard.

What readers can do

Share: copy the article link, or open a prefilled post for X or LinkedIn. A short confirmation appears next to the button when a link is copied. If a reader's browser blocks clipboard access, the button reports that the copy failed and they can still copy the address bar.
Copy code: every code sample has a Copy button in its frame, and confirms with Copied. If the browser blocks clipboard access the button says Failed and the sample can still be selected by hand.
Link to a section: pointing at a heading reveals a small link for sharing that exact part of the article.
Search: readers can search from the bar on any Journal page, or press the forward slash key. On phones the box becomes a search icon.
Continue reading: up to three other recent articles appear at the end of every article.

Troubleshooting

My article is not on the Journal

Only published articles appear. Check the status in Dashboard → Blog → Articles, and confirm the publish date is not in the future. A scheduled article appears when its time arrives. The public pages also refresh on a short delay, so allow a few minutes after publishing before assuming something is wrong.

The card shows the wrong summary

Cards prefer the subtitle over the excerpt. Edit the subtitle, or clear it if you would rather the excerpt was used.

The topic bar does not show my new tag

The bar lists the tags used most across recent articles. A brand-new or rarely used tag may not qualify yet. It still works as a link from the article itself, and it appears once more articles share it.

There is no On this page list

The list is built from headings inside the article. If the article only has paragraphs, or uses bold text where headings were intended, no list appears. Add real headings and republish.

The featured image looks cropped

The lead image and cards use a wide frame and trim the edges to fit. Keep the important part of the picture near the centre, and avoid images with text close to an edge.

A block looks plain after publishing

Named blocks need the closing ::: line on its own line, with a blank line before the block starts. If the closing line is missing, the words are published as ordinary paragraphs. Open Preview while writing: the preview now uses the same treatment as the published page, so anything that looks plain there will look plain to readers.