Open Resource: How to use the Forem post editor

Image by Julia M Cameron

For new Forem community members, the Forem space may be a brand new experience. First-time Forem users have to to learn new tooling, functionality, and ways of expressing themselves.

The #openresources archive is a compendium of content for Forem creators to add to their burgeoning communities, in the form of posts or pages, or other creative solutions. Today we're sharing some basic "How to use the post editor" copy with you:

Choosing your editor

This Forem comes bundled with 2 Post Editors, which you can switch up in your personal Configuration Settings > Writing > Editor Version: a basic markdown version, and an enhanced version (Rich + Markdown).

The Rich + Markdown editor helps with selecting tags, includes a formatting toolbar and cover image uploader, and provides a more supported experience overall. If you choose the Basic Markdown version, you'll need to set your front matter and write the markdown yourself.

This post will discuss how to use the Rich + Markdown editor.

Choosing a title

When selecting your title, try to be descriptive and give your readers an idea of what to expect.

Titles like "this is cool" and "I have a question" can result in people ignoring your post because it doesn't feel relevant to them. To get the people you want to read your post to open it, connect to them with titles like "8 reasons Encanto is the best Disney movie ever" or "What's the best way to pre-cook yams for a sweet potato pie?" (both of these post titles tell readers what to expect, so people know what they're going to get when they open them).

We shouldn't have to say this, but please make sure any content you post is relevant to the theme of this community and abides by the community Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. That includes matching the title to the content of your post, and not writing something just for the sake of getting attention (also known as "clickbait").

Choosing a cover image

Choose a cover image that reflects the content of your post. If your post is a request for help, maybe use a photo of someone helping someone else, or the item or object you need help with. For example, if your post title is "What's the best way to pre-cook yams for a sweet potato pie?" consider an image of a sweet potato pie or some raw sweet potatoes, or maybe even some people cooking together.

(Even though your puppy is adorable and sweet potato pie is her favorite food, a photo of her asleep in the corner probably won't draw someone's attention to you asking for help cooking yams!)

Check that you have permission to use the image, or use an image under free license. Great sources for images include Unsplash and Pexels. Be sure to check the license of the image that you've chosen, and credit the source if it's required.

Adding tags

Tags are categories for posts, which you can browse from the tags menu of this community. They're another powerful tool you can use to help your readers know what to expect from your content.

You might even want to volunteer as a tag moderator for your favorite tag pages - with care and feeding these can become mini communities where you can connect with like-minded community members.

You can add up to 4 tags to your post by doing one of the following:

• Clicking a tag that appears as a suggestion in the dropdown
• Using the Up/Down arrow keys to highlight a suggestion and pressing Enter
• Typing a , or space after your tag name (e.g. typing "changelog,"
• Typing your tag name and simply clicking elsewhere in the page to "move away" from the selector

(source)

Editing or removing a tag

Any tags you've added to your post turn into a button beneath your post title. You can click X to remove the tag from your post, or click on the tag's text to edit the tag text (for example, if you realize you've misspelled it).

Embedding Rich Content

To share rich content in your post, you can the embed keyword and the complete URL of the resource:

{% embed https://forem.dev/foremteam/changelog-a-new-and-streamlined-way-to-embed-rich-content-4h58 %}

And this is what that embed looks like when it's freed from the code block:

Changelog: A new and streamlined way to embed rich content

Arit Amana for Forem Core Team ・ Feb 16 ・ 1 min read

#changelog

This function can be used for playlist, Tweets, GitHub repos, and more.

Embed not working? Check that your chosen embed type appears on this list of supported embeds, and consider requesting it to be supported if it doesn't appear on the list.

Additional Post Options

Last but not least, the Post Options menu can be expanded at the bottom of your post by clicking on the ⚙ icon:

If you've originally published your post somewhere else and want search engines to know that the other location is the original source for your post, drop that full URL in the "Canonical link" field.

Next time: we explore Series and get meta with it. Follow #openresources to stay updated with new content as it appears.

Want to use this content in your community?

The markdown for this page is available in our Open Resources repo here