Writing and Publishing Blog Posts

The Blog Editor is your full-featured writing studio for creating and publishing blog content on your Malet. Whether you're drafting a product announcement, sharing behind-the-scenes stories, or writing industry guides, the editor has everything you need — from auto-save that never loses your work, to a version history that lets you restore previous drafts.

Accessing the Blog Editor

You can access the Blog Editor from two places:

1. The Deck — Navigate to your Malet management area and click + New Post
2. Admin Dashboard — Use the blog section in your dashboard to manage existing posts

Writing Your Post

The Title

Click the large title field at the top of the editor and type your post title. As you type, a URL-friendly slug is automatically generated below. For example, typing "My Summer Collection Reveal" creates the slug my-summer-collection-reveal.

Cover Image

Upload a cover image to give your post visual impact. You can either:

• Paste a URL directly into the Cover Image field
• Upload an image by clicking the Upload button and selecting a file from your device

The Rich Text Editor

The editor supports all the formatting you'd expect:

• Bold, italic, and strikethrough text
• Headings (H1 through H6)
• Bullet lists and numbered lists
• Block quotes
• Horizontal dividers
• Links and images
• Code blocks

The toolbar at the top of the editor gives you quick access to all formatting options. You can also use keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+B for bold or Ctrl+I for italic.

Word and Character Count

A count bar at the bottom of the editor shows your live word count and character count as you write. This updates in real-time and is useful for keeping posts within target lengths.

Excerpt and Tags

Below the title, expand the meta panel to add:

• Excerpt — A short summary of your post that appears in blog listings and search results
• Tags — Comma-separated keywords that help Visitors discover your content (e.g., fashion, summer, new arrivals)

Auto-Save: Never Lose Your Work

The editor automatically saves a draft of your work every 30 seconds while you're writing. You'll see the save status in the top bar:

• 🟡 Unsaved — You have changes that haven't been saved yet (a pulsing yellow dot)
• ✅ Saved — Your draft was saved with a relative timestamp (e.g., "Saved 5s ago")

You can also click the 💾 Save button at any time to force an immediate save.

Version History: Browse and Restore Past Drafts

Every auto-save creates a draft snapshot — a frozen copy of your post at that moment. You can browse up to 20 snapshots per post.

Opening the History Drawer

Click the 🕓 History button in the top bar. A panel slides in from the right showing all your saved snapshots, newest first.

Each snapshot card shows:

• The post title at the time of the save
• The exact date and time
• The publish stage (Draft, In Review, Published, etc.)

Restoring a Version

Click Restore on any snapshot to revert your editor to that version. Your current unsaved changes will be replaced — the editor will show an "Unsaved" indicator so you know the restored version needs saving.

Managing Snapshots

• Delete a single snapshot by clicking the × button
• Clear All to remove all saved snapshots for this post

Publish Approval Pipeline

The Blog Editor includes a structured workflow for getting your posts from draft to published. The pipeline ensures content goes through review before going live.

Stages

Your blog post moves through these stages:

A color-coded stage badge in the top-left of the editor always shows your current stage.

Publishing Workflow

Depending on your current stage, different action buttons appear:

1. Save as Draft — Always available. Saves your work without changing the stage.
2. Submit for Review — Available from Draft. Sends the post to the Review stage.
3. Approve & Publish — Available from Review. Approves and immediately publishes.
4. Publish — Available from Draft or Approved. Publishes immediately.
5. Schedule — Available from any pre-published stage. Opens a date/time picker to schedule future publication.

Scheduling a Post

To schedule a post for future publication:

1. Click the Schedule button
2. A calendar picker appears — select your desired date and time
3. Click Confirm Schedule
4. Your post moves to the Scheduled stage and will be published automatically at the chosen time

Unsaved Changes Warning

If you try to leave the editor with unsaved changes, you'll see a confirmation dialog asking if you want to discard your changes. This prevents accidental data loss.

JSON Validation Badge

For advanced users: the editor performs real-time structural validation of the underlying document format. You'll see a small badge in the top bar:

• ✓ Valid (green) — The document structure is correct
• ✗ Invalid (red) — There's a structural issue (rare, usually from copy-paste artifacts)

This validation runs automatically and doesn't require any action from you. It's there as a safety net to catch rare formatting issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many draft snapshots can I have? Each post stores up to 20 draft snapshots. When you exceed 20, the oldest snapshot is automatically removed to make room.

Q: Can I undo a restore? Yes — restoring a version marks your editor as "unsaved." You can undo the restore by using your browser's undo function (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) in the editor, or by restoring a different snapshot from the history drawer.

Q: Who can approve posts for publication? Anyone with write permissions on the Malet can approve and publish posts. If you're the sole Malet Owner, you can approve your own posts.

Q: What happens when I schedule a post? The post stays in the Scheduled stage with the chosen publication date and time. When the time arrives, it automatically transitions to Published and becomes visible on your Malet.

Q: Are auto-saved drafts visible to my team? No. Auto-saved drafts are stored locally on your device. Only drafts saved to the server (via "Save Draft") are visible to team members.