Getting started

Updated

Create an issue

  1. In the WordPress admin, go to Publications → Issues
  2. Enter the issue's Name (for example "Spring 2026") and add it
  3. Click the new issue to edit it, then fill in the Issue Fields: Issue Cover Image, Issue Title, Issue Volume, Issue Number, Issue Date, and Issue Description
  4. Update

Set an Issue Date on every issue. The blocks sort issues by it, and an issue without one goes to the end of the list.

Add articles

  1. Go to Publications → New Article
  2. Set the title, write the article, and set a Featured Image (its caption appears under the image on the article page)
  3. In the sidebar, tick the article's Issue, and optionally one Category (the menu calls them Article Types)
  4. Write an Excerpt: it appears on issue pages, in Featured Articles, and as the "Next Up" teaser in the sidebar
  5. If Dirigible People is installed, pick the Authors. They appear as "Contributors"
  6. Publish

Give every article exactly one issue. Its web address is built from the issue: /issues/spring-2026/article-name/, or /issues/spring-2026/category/article-name/ with a category. An article with no issue has no proper address.

List the issues

  1. Create a page, insert the Issue Archive block, and publish it
  2. Go to Publications → Settings and choose that page as the Issues Page. The All Issues → button on issue pages and the Issues breadcrumb on article pages point to it
  3. Publish

For a home page, use Latest Issue for the newest issue alone, and Featured Articles for a hand-picked set of articles.

What visitors see

  • Issue page (/issues/spring-2026/): the cover, an All Issues → button, the issue title, a line with the volume, number, and date, the description, then every article as a card with its image, category, title, excerpt, and contributors.
  • Article page: breadcrumbs, the cover image and caption, the article, and a sidebar with the issue's cover and a table of contents of its articles. The current article is greyed out and the next one is marked Next Up with its excerpt.

Tips

  • The order of articles on the issue page and in the table of contents is the order you drag them into in the Articles list once Sort by dragging is on (see the theme's Custom Order). Without it, newest first.
  • Only issues with at least one published article appear in the blocks.
  • Changing Slug under Publications → Settings changes issue and article addresses. They switch over when you save.

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