SolidSmack Article and Writing Guide

SolidSmack Article and Writing Guide

Content focus
Our mission to break down the engineering and design process, to inspire better products and help make ideas happen. Our goal is to create and deliver stories and resources that add value for engineers and designers, that improves the engineer and design
process, their lifestyle, workspace, and culture.

Ideally, the content should fall within the main SolidSmack Categories: DESIGN, TECH, CAD, and FAB. However, anything having to do with the design process and how things are made is acceptable. Interviews make it even better.

Prepping Content

We’ve got the content prep process down to a few quick to get you started fast. Remember the content focus in pulling all the details together.

  1. Start post (Post, Add New)
  2. Add headline (can refine later)
  3. Select one category (Design, Tech, CAD, FAB, etc)
  4. Add tags (4-5 with keywords)
  5. Add intro (short paragraph with main point and link)
  6. Add links (link to source and any other relevant site)
  7. Add key points (should be able to get the idea across with 5 key points max)
  8. Save images (lead image and any to use within content)
  9. Add video (if available, this can be added)

Writing Content

This is a more in-depth overview of writing an article. This will attempt to address common questions about format. You’ll see some with more, some with less. We’re not focusing on a word count, but on topics that interest our readers!

Add New post
From side menu – Post, Add New
From top menu – + New, Post

Add Content
This is the standard content for a post. After the intro, ‘more tag’ and sub-heading, there is complete freedom to arrange the post as needed. This only serves as a guideline.

  • Headline – Use proper capitalization
  • Intro – what is this about. Link to source here.
  • More tag – added after the intro
  • Subheading – at least one with topic of post
  • Copy – More words about the topic
  • Quotes – any relevant quote
  • Bullet points – any specifics about news/product/story
  • Image/video – any images/videos of news/product/story
  • Source/Via – add at end of post

Add Featured Image
Type – clear image of news item/product/story
Format/Size – jpg, 16:9 ratio (example: 1920 x 1080px)
Add to post – click ‘Add Media’ above post area, select ‘Featured Image’ in left menu, upload/select photo. Or select ‘Set featured image’ from the right side menu.

Notes on images:

  • Min 800px wide preferred
  • Use original images or from royalty-free sources like Pixabay.
  • DO NOT use copyright images without the express written consent of the original photographer/author.

Using the Text (HTML) Editor
It helps to have some familiarity with HTML, although not required. A sample post can be provided to show the types of elements used and how to format the post correctly or an existing post may be reviewed. For the most part, it follows the process of starting a new post and the layout, with adding the Featured Image, the intro and images, and the rest of the copy.

Using the Visual Editor
Some formatting is only available via the Visual editor. Be warned that switching between the Text and Visual editor can cause some formatting to update unexpectedly.

Other Tips

Soft Return – When you hit the Enter-key when writing in the Visual Editor, this will create a hard return, starting a new paragraph. To create a soft return and go to the next line, simply hit Shift + Enter.