GovWire

1. Select the New document tab in Whitehall publisher.

2. Click on the document type you want to create.

3. If the document has a number of sub-types (for example, publications, news articles, guidance and speeches), select the relevant one from the dropdown menu at the top of the page.

4. Complete the Title field using a maximum of 65 characters. Titles must be unique and cannot be changed once published. Titles do not need a full stop. When you save your document this will become its slug, which users will see as the last section of the page URL.

5. Complete the Summary field using a maximum of 140 characters. This must be written as a complete sentence with a full stop.

6. Complete the Body section using Markdown to format things like headings, bullets and links. You can paste formatted text from a document into the Body section and itll be converted into Markdown. Common Markdown commands are also listed on the right-hand side of the page.

7. Below the Body section, indicate if your document has never been published before or has previously been published on another website. If its been published before, you will need to add the date it was originally published.

8. Check whether your content is devolved (excludes some nations) or applies to all UK nations. You must check the box which applies to your content. If you do not select anything you will not be able to save or publish your content. You can add a link to the corresponding content if yours does not apply to a particular nation.

9. Tag your document to relevant organisations, ministers and locations by adding associations.

10. If the document is guidance related to the end of the transition period with the EU, select display the post-transition call-out box. Add links to guidance about what users need to do currently (current state guidance).

11. Save your document by clicking Save (which returns you to the main document list) or Save and continue editing (which returns you to your document so you can keep working on it).

Once a document has been saved, you can add:

• attachments
• images and video
• tables and graphs

If you do not want to save your document, click the cancel link at the bottom of the page. This will delete your draft and there will be no record of your document in Whitehall publisher.

Limit access

You can limit access to documents so that they can only be edited and published by editors in the department its tagged to. Once published it can be accessed by all editors.

Only limit access if the information is confidential.

You cannot sync limited access documents between the Production and Integration environments.

You can preview the body copy of your document in several ways.

Preview toggle

For quick checks, like seeing if your Markdown is correct, you can use the preview toggle.

1. Click preview at the top of your Body text box. This will show you how your text will look when published.

2. Review your content and formatting.

3. Click continue editing to return to your work.

The toggle button just shows you how text has been formatted. It does not save your work.

Preview entire document

You also can check how a document will appear when published on GOV.UK.

1. Save your document by clicking the Save button at the bottom of the page (not Save and continue editing). This will save and close your document.

2. On the new page, click the blue Preview on website button.

Previews for stakeholders or policy teams

There are two ways to share previews of documents with people who do not have access to Whitehall publisher. You can either:

• send the document preview link to someone so they can see how it will appear on GOV.UK
• use fact check to share the document and get comments

Using document preview links

Document preview links are available for:

• news articles
• speeches
• case studies
• detailed guides
• publications
• consultations
• document collections
• statistical datasets
• corporate information pages

To get a document preview link:

1. Open the Share document preview panel
2. Select Copy link to copy the link

Youre responsible for who you share draft documents with. The preview link will only work for the page youre previewing.

The preview link will expire after 30 days or when the document is published. Whitehall publisher will say when the link will expire.

You can reset and generate a new preview link if youve shared the link with the wrong person or the link has expired. The previous preview link will be disabled. To do this:

1. Select Generate new link - youll get a confirmation saying a new link has been generated
2. Select Copy link to copy and get your new preview link.

1. Select the Documents tab and search for the document you want to edit. Click on a document title to view it.

2. Click Create new edition to start a new draft version of your document for editing.

If a draft has already been created youll see a button saying Go to latest edition from which youll be able to click Edit and edit the document.

When a document is being edited, therell be 2 versions of it in Whitehall publisher - the live page and the new draft version.

The new draft version will overwrite the live page when its published.

Change notes

When you edit or change a page, you can tell users the page has changed by adding a change note. The note is viewable on the page (by selecting see all updates or full page history) and its emailed to people subscribed to email updates for your content. Do not do this for minor changes like typos, broken links or style corrections.

Find out more about writing change notes.

Internal notes

Add a note so other editors can see who requested the change and why.

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