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Creating a New Post

Click the New Post icon in the toolbar to create a new post. A post editor window will appear:

New Post Window screen shot

Note: The window’s appearance will vary slightly, depending on the features your blog system supports.

Writing your post

Write your post in the large text area. You may edit your post in plain HTML, or using the rich editor. You can also switch between these modes at any time by selecting Post > Edit Plain Text or Post > Edit Rich Text. Use the Format menu to add common formatting styles to your content. You can also define powerful, custom formatting macros.

Click the Options button to reveal a side-panel which may contain, depending on your blog system, categories, text filters, comments status, and other options.

Additional fields such as Tags, Excerpt, Keywords, and Slug may be shown by selecting them from the View menu. These fields will remain visible or hidden for each of your blogs, until you change the selection. For WordPress and other blog systems that implement the WordPress API, you can configure custom fields which appear along with the standard fields in this section.

Some blog systems support the notion of "splitting" a post. For these systems, you can write the post in two sections: body and extended. The body is typically shown on the blog’s front page, with a link to the extended content, often labeled "Continue Reading", or similar. You can split a post by selecting Post > Split Post. To switch between the sections, select Post > Edit Body or Post > Edit Extended Text. If you're not sure about this feature, it's probably best to leave your posts unsplit.

Other options such as Enclosure and the Post Date can be edited from the Post menu.

Previewing your post

To get a sense for how your post will look on the web, click the Preview button in the toolbar. This will open a separate window showing your post with HTML content rendered, and text filter applied.

You can edit your preview template so that it looks more like your blog. See Editing Your Preview Template for more information.

Posting to your blog

When you’re finished writing, click the Post button. MarsEdit will send the post to your blog. Click the View On Web button in the toolbar to open the blog in your web browser.