Article Writing Guide

Create a title for your article of no shorter than 10 characters and not exceeding 115 characters in length. Our character counter above the text input field will help you with that. 

Note: The “Title” field is mandatory, and the draft can’t be submitted without it.

Once completed, a green checkmark will appear in the Editor Menu, indicating the user has included a sufficient Title. The user can also quickly access this field by clicking on the related field in the Overview section (Take me there).

**Under the title, a writer can add a Preview text as well. Learn here about intro paragraphs**

To create a new text block, click on the ”Add paragraph” next to the “Plus” (+) button and start typing. Once finished writing the paragraph, press the Enter key to create a new one. 

After you start writing, select the text to apply the formatting, and the rich text editor menu (RTE) will appear. 

Styling

Make the text bold, italic, or underlined​. To boost productivity, we enabled the standard shortcuts for both Windows and IOS. 

Bulleted & Numbered lists

To create an ordered list within the text block, you should select the relevant lines of text and click on the Bulleted or Numbered list icons in the RTE menu. 

Headers

When creating section headings and subheadings for the title with H2 and H3 tags, remember that all text within the selected block will be formatted accordingly. 

Tip: If you want to use both H2 and H3 titles, you should use them in two different text blocks.

Hyperlink

To add a hyperlink, select a word and click on the “link” icon in the RTE menu. Then insert or paste the desired URL and click enter. You can decide whether the hyperlink will open in a new tab by checking the first box. If you want to prohibit search engines from crawling this link, you should check the “no-follow” box.

Tip #1: According to SEO guidelines, external hyperlinks within your articles (that lead to other domains) should be opened in a new tab, reducing your articles' bounce rate and improving viewability & traffic.

Tip #2: Check the “no-follow” box for external links added for commercial reasons or lead to unrelated content.

Sponsored Links
In light of recent changes to Google’s algorithm, the "No follow" and "Sponsored" attributes should be selected for each sponsored or affiliate link that is added to an article as a hyperlink to mitigate the risk of Google's penalties.

Follow the steps below:

1. Select text within the CMS Editor
2. Click on the "Hyperlink" icon
3. After pasting the link, check the "Sponsored" and "Add no follow" boxes

Engage with your audience by creating listicles with our List block. For each of the listed block types, you can add the title, upload an image, and optionally add the body text. You can either upload an image directly from your computer or use an embed from our integrated providers (Ex. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube).

Visually separate the sections of your article with a divider. To add one, hover in between two blocks, click on the (+) button, and then click on the Divider icon within the RTE.

As media plays a crucial role in news gathering today, we have enabled various embedding options in our platform, including third-party video players and social media of all sorts. Follow the steps to add a media block:

1. Click on the (+) button either after the text block or in-between the paragraphs
2. Click on the “Media” icon within the RTE, which will open the element panel
3. Choose one of the available embed options.

New Embeds Menu (Playground) 

We have made it even easier to add images and embed media blocks within your articles.

We've replaced our previous embed "Carousel" (as seen below), with a new "Playground" that gives better access to the various embed types.

A “Crown” icon will now indicate the different premium/paid embeds that not all Voltax brands have access to, allowing you to see what’s available to you easily.

To view the new menu, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on "Write a new article" via the "Editor" table.
2. Click on the "Plus" sign and then click on the "Media" icon (for the cover image or "Media" embeds within the article).
3. Click on each item to embed it into your article.
4. Click on the "Back" button if you want to go back to the initial embeds menu.

Image upload

In order to upload images to Voltax, you must have the Media Admin role assigned to you within your organization. Users with the Media Contributor role need their images approved by a Media Admin in order to use them within an article.
You can upload an image directly from your local computer. We support any of the following formats: jpg, jpeg, and png. To achieve high-quality published material, ensure your pictures have a minimum resolution of 400x224 px without exceeding 5MB in file size. Once uploaded, you can crop the image either horizontally or vertically by resizing it to the various ratios provided (3:4, 16:9, 1:1, 3:2, 2:3). Simply select the ratio and adjust the cropping until you are satisfied with the result. 

We recommend adding a caption (limited to 150 characters) and an alt text (limited to 125 characters) in order to boost the SEO search results. 
*Check out Minute Media's extensive SEO Best Practices guides for additional SEO tips & tricks!

You can add a link to you image and make it clickable by turning on the "Target link" toggle and pasting the URL that you want readers to be directed to when clicking on the image.
Note you can check the boxes below whether you want the URL to be opened on a new browser tab or not to be followed by search engines.

Ensure you have the right to use the content you upload and add a “Credit” if necessary.
Once done, click on the Add button below to insert the image block to the article. 

Media Library

Upload an image from the Media Library (Voltax Images)

Getty Images embeds

You can use any of the licensed images from Getty (according to the licensing contract). Use the free search bar to find the most relevant images for your article. By default, you will get the best matching result to your query. However, you can make the search more relevant to you by sorting it by newest, oldest, or most popular publications.

Twitter embeds

To add a Twitter post into your article, paste the copied tweet URL into the field. Alternatively, you can look up tweets directly from our platform by switching to the Search mode and sort results by the most popular and recent tweets, or look for a mix of those.

To place the tweet into your article, click on the Add button at the element panel’s bottom. Note that you must click on the tweet before clicking on the Add button to add a searched tweet.

YouTube embeds

To add a YouTube video block into your article, click on the YouTube icon within the element panel and paste the video’s URL into the dedicated field below. Then click on the Add button to place it into your article. 

Instagram  embeds

To add an Instagram post to your article, click on the Instagram icon within the element panel, paste the post’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article. 

Facebook  embeds

To add a Facebook post to your article, click on the Facebook icon within the element panel, paste the post’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Giphy embeds

To add a GIF or an animated sticker from Giphy’s database into your article, click on the Giphy icon within the element panel, paste a GIF’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article. 

You can also look up both GIFs and stickers by switching to the Search mode, typing a keyword, and clicking “enter.” Note that to add a searched GIF, you must click on it before clicking on the Add button.

Gfycat embeds

To add a Gfycat embed to your article, click on the Gfycat icon within the element panel, paste a GIF’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Voltax Player embeds

To add a single video or a custom playlist from the Voltax player, click on the Voltax Player icon within the element panel and paste the iFrame embed code from the VMS into the dedicated field below. Then click on the Add button to place it into your article. Alternately, click on the “Search” button to find videos/playlists from the VMS.

Streamable embeds

To add a Streamable embed to your article, click on the Streamable icon within the element panel, paste the video’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Exco embeds (previously known as Playbuzz)

To add an Exco Embed to your article, click on the Exco icon within the element panel, paste its URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

DailyMotion embeds

To add a DailyMotion video embed to your article, click on the DailyMotion icon within the element panel, paste the video’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Vimeo embeds

To add a Vimeo video embed to your article, click on the Vimeo icon within the element panel, paste the video’s URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Soundcloud embeds

To add music tracks or playlists from the Soundcloud library to your article, click on the Soundcloud icon within the element panel, paste its URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Apester embeds

To add an Apester embed to your article, click on the Apester icon within the element panel, paste its URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article (this relies on access to Apester’s external platform). 

Ceros embeds

To add a Ceros embed to your article, click on the Ceros icon within the element panel, paste its URL into the dedicated field below, and then click on the Add button to place it into your article (this relies on access to Ceros’s external platform). 

iFrame embeds

To add a different embed to your article that doesn’t appear within the list, click on the iFrame Embed icon within the element panel and paste its iFrame embed code into the dedicated field below. Click on the Add button to place it into your article.

Note that we only support <iFrame> embeds containing a “height” attribute, ensuring an optimal appearance throughout our platform.

We now enable editors to create articles that are separated into several slides by adding a "Page Break" between them (within the Editor), called slideshows. The slideshow capability enables editorial teams on Voltax to enrich their readers' experience on the site.

Editorial teams can add any block type to each slide, such as paragraphs, H2/H3 titles, lists, images, media embeds, etc.

The first slide’s URL is configured via the "Publisher" (same as today). Each of the next slide’s URLs will be automatically generated with a slash (/) and the "Number of the slide" at the end of the first slide's URL.

To publish a new slideshow, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on "Write a new article" via the "Editor" table.
2. After adding a title, a cover image, and several paragraphs (for the 1st slide), click on the "Plus" sign and then click on the "New slide" icon.
3. Clicking on the "New slide" button will add a "Page Break" to the Editor, which will indicate where the previous slide ends and where the new one starts. (The "Page Break" will not be visible on the site's post-page)

Tips:

1. If you add the "Page Break" before any of the other paragraphs/blocks, the first slide on the site will be empty (only the title and the cover image will appear)
2. If you add two "Page Break" blocks in a row, it'll result in an empty slide within the site.
3. In the 1st phase, you'll only be able to "Preview" the first slide. 
4. Each "Page Break" block within the editor can be deleted or "reordered" (same as the rest of the blocks we currently support).
5. The article's title and cover image will be visible on top of each one of the slides.

We have enabled users to add tables within their Voltax articles.

1. The ability to create a new Table with rows and columns (minimum two each).
2. The first row is a header row by default and cannot be changed.
3. At this point, only plain text is supported. We do not support media, images, hyperlinks, or formatting (e.g., bold, italic, underline).
4. All text inside cells will be aligned to the left with no option to change the alignment.
5. The only way to change the table structure (i.e., number of rows and columns) is to copy the table contents to the clipboard using the dedicated button, create a new table with a new structure, and paste it into the new table.
   

To view your article’s appearance before submitting it, you can click on the Preview button on the screen’s top-right part. We provide mobile, tablet, and desktop previews for your article.

For your convenience, you can view your article’s word count on top of the screen.

To make sure that none of your work goes to waste, we automatically save your content without you needing to lift a finger. We provide an indication on top of the Editor that your content has been “Saved.”

To help you navigate between the various screens within the CMS, you can click on the “Back” button to return to your previous screen.

Once you have finished writing your article’s draft, including the title, cover image, and at least three tags, you can click on the submit button for editorial review. 

Note that the Submit button will be disabled if you have not filled in one of the mandatory fields. When mouse-hovering the disabled Submit button, you can check out which of the fields are missing.