You can publish to your Write.as blog on the go with the WriteFreely iOS app. This guide will introduce some of the features of the app, and how it works with your Write.as account. It requires an iOS device running iOS/iPadOS 14.0 or later; you can get it on the App Store for $14.99.

Creating Your First Post

You don't need to log into any account to begin writing. The app will launch straight to the post editor, where you can start writing a local post that only exists on your device.

Give your post a title by tapping where it says “Title (optional)”, and then tap on “Write…” below it to being writing your post. New local posts are automatically added to your Drafts, and they're saved automatically when you leave the post editor, or load another post. Blank posts are deleted when you navigate away from them.

To create another new local post, tap the New Post button at the top-right of the post list. You'll see a new post added to the top of the list, and it should load in the editor right away.

Getting Set Up

Logging In to Your Account

Tap the Settings button at the bottom-left of the post list to open the app's Settings screen. At the top of the screen, a form prompts you to log in to publish and share your posts. Enter your username and password, and use https://write.as as the server URL.

⚠️ To keep your account secure, the app will not communicate over an insecure connection. If you provide an address with the http:// protocol, it will attempt to connect over https://. If it cannot, you'll get an error message.

Once logged in, the app will fetch all of the posts and blogs in your account. Any local posts you've created are kept after logging in, and you can then publish them to your blog. See the Working With Posts section for details.

⚠️ Tapping Log Out in the Settings screen will disconnect the app from the server and remove all your content from the device, including any local posts that you haven't published.

Setting Your Appearance Preferences

Below the login form on the Settings screen, you can define some appearance preferences. You can choose whether you prefer to use the app in light mode, dark mode, or to have it switch based on your system settings.

You can also choose the default font for new local posts created on the device. This does not override the font used in existing posts; you can only change the font for published posts from the web application.

Navigating The App

The WriteFreely app uses a typical three-level hierarchy, much like the Mail app on your iOS device. Choosing a blog in the first column will show you its posts in the second column; choosing a post from that list will load it for you in the post editor.

On a 12.9” iPad Pro in full-screen landscape orientation, you can see all three columns at the same time; on other iPads in full-screen landscape orientation, you'll see the post list and post editor at the same time. Otherwise, use the navigation button at the top-right of the screen to navigate back on iPhone and on iPad in portrait or split-screen orientation.

Post status

In the app, posts can have one of three statuses:

• Local means that the post was created on the device, and has never been published to the server.
• Published means that the post was fetched from the server.
• Edited means that the post was fetched from the server, and has been edited in the app, but these changes have not yet been published to the server.

Working with posts

Generally, there are three actions you can take on a post: publishing, sharing, or moving. These are made available by tapping on the Menu button at the top-right of the post editor.

A local post can only be published. Choose Publish… from the menu and you'll be presented with a list of blogs you can publish the post to. If you're not logged in, trying to publish will open the Settings screen and prompt you to log in.

A published post can be shared or moved; an edited post can be published, shared, or moved.

Choose Publish from the menu to publish the changes made to an edited post back to the server. This changes the status of the post from edited back to published.

Choose Share from the menu to open the system share sheet, where you can send a link to your post through any compatible app on the device.

Under the Move to… section of the menu, tap the name of the blog you'd like to move the post to. The checkmark indicates what blog the post currently belongs to.

Server sync

The app periodically fetches your content from the server automatically. You can force it to fetch by tapping the Reload button at the bottom-right of the post list.

⚠️ Note that this never replaces the content on your device with content from the server. If a post has been changed or deleted on the server, you'll be shown this information when you view the post in the app. You can then choose to make the same changes in the app.

Getting help

Need help? Tap Visit Help Forum in the app's Settings screen to be taken to the help forum where you can ask a question or search for answers.

Text

<h1>Header</h1>

<h2>Header</h2>

<h3>Header</h3>

<h4>Header</h4>

<p>Paragraph</p>

<ul>
<li>List Item 1</li>
<li>List Item 2</li>
<li>List Item 3</li>
</ul>

<ol>
<li>List Item</li>
<li>List Item</li>
<li>List Item</li>
</ol>

<blockquote>This is a blockquote.</blockquote>

Header

Header

Header

Header

Paragraph

• List Item 1
• List Item 2
• List Item 3

1. List Item
2. List Item
3. List Item

This is a blockquote.

<strong>Bold</strong>

<em>Italics</em>

<u>Underline</u>

<a href="https://write.as">Link</a>

<span style="color:red">Style</span>

<div id="myDiv" name="myDiv" title="Example Div Element" style="color: #0900C4; border: 1px solid black;">
  <h5>Subtitle in the box</h5>
  <p>This paragraph is also inside the box...</p>
</div>

Bold

Italics

Underline

Link

Style

Video

<video src="https://cdn.glitch.com/db7ab5d8-dd97-466b-8180-676147e8fc40%2FUsing%20Write.as%20Themes.mp4?" controls></video>

Iframe

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HJT8yYf-XPs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Audio

<audio src="https://cdn.glitch.com/db7ab5d8-dd97-466b-8180-676147e8fc40%2F%2333%20-%20Reflection%2014%20about.mp3" controls></audio>

Image

<img src="https://i.snap.as/2HKPL0c.png" />

Getting Started

All you need to do is go to the Customize settings of your blog. Scroll down to “Custom CSS” and customize your blog from there.

The following stylesheet shows a few basic selectors you'll need in order to customize certain elements. In the BASICS section, just grab the selectors (e.g. #blog-title a:hover) for your stylesheet — the properties are only there to illustrate what you can do.

You should copy entire sections in the RECIPES section verbatim, as each is a complete customization you might want to make, like centering an image.

/* 

    BASICS
    Use the following CSS rules to change the elements you're trying to customize.

*/

body {
    background-color: #efefef;
}

/* Blog header on index and post pages */
#blog-title a { 
    color: #fff;
    background-color: #7a629d;
}
#blog-title a:hover { 
    color: #eee;
    background-color: #7a629d;
}

/* Blog header on post pages ONLY */
body#post #blog-title a {
    padding: 4px 8px;
}

/* Blog description (underneath title) on index page */
header p.description {
    font-style: italic;
}

/* Post titles on blog index */
.post-title {
    font-weight: normal;
}
.post-title a.u-url:link, .post-title a.u-url:visited {
    color: blue;
}

/* "Read more..." links */
body#collection a.read-more {
    text-decoration: underline;
}

/* Links inside blog posts */
article p a {
    color: #444;
    text-decoration: none;
    border-bottom: 2px solid orangered;
}
article p a:hover {
    background-color: orangered;
    color: white;
    text-decoration: none;
}

/*

    RECIPES
    These are common patterns you may want to use on your blog.

*/

/* Center images */
img {
    display: block;
    margin: 0 auto;
}

/* Disable post header fade effect */
body#post header
    -moz-opacity: 1;
    -khtml-opacity: 1;
    -webkit-opacity: 1;
    opacity: 1;
}

/* Hide post views */
header nav .views {
    display: none;
}

Themes

If you want to see how you can customize beyond the basic elements of your blog, you can check out our Themes blog. Here, you can find custom blogs from the Write.as community whose themes you can use & remix for your own blog.

Anonymous posts are only identified by a secret, unique ID. Unlike posts connected to a blog, they aren't publicly connected to an identity unless you make it known in the post that you wrote it. A reader can't link your anonymous posts back to you by default.

Write.as only links anonymous back to you when you're logged in. That way you can keep track of your published anonymous posts on your Posts page. When you're logged out, however, Write.as doesn't know about all of the anonymous posts you wrote, since they're not connected to a single account. This gives you the best privacy on the platform, at the expense of a little convenience.

While private by default, anonymous posts can also be shared with others. After publishing an anonymous post, you will notice that the top bar includes a Share option. You can click this to show the anonymous post's URL, which you can easily copy and paste to share with others.

Anonymous posts open the door to possibilities where a blog post would be too much:

Need to send a grocery list to your partner? Put the list in an anonymous post and share the link with them.

Have a thought that's more than 240 characters? Write an anonymous post and share the link to Twitter instead of making a longer thread.

Want to write a stand-alone short story? Publish your story as an anonymous post and share the link with friends.

Need someone to look over a draft? Make the draft an anonymous post and share the link with your editor.

Have an article that's unrelated to your blog? Still publish it as an anonymous post and share the link on social media.

Want to share a code snippet? Copy that code into an anonymous post and share the link with your colleague.

However you choose to use them, anonymous posts are a way that you can express yourself with peace of mind.

Social handle

Your Write.as blog handle will look just like the ones you see on Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, and other fediverse platforms. For example: @blog@write.as. The first part of your handle (e.g. “blog”) will be the same as your Write.as username or blog alias.

If you use a custom domain for your blog, you can also customize the username part of your handle, as seen here:

Enable federation

You'll go to your blog's Customize page to enable federation. Under the Updates section, simply enable the Federation option to make your blog part of the fediverse.

Note: This will automatically be enabled when your blog is set to Public visibility.

Following your blog

Readers can follow your blog by searching for it from Mastodon or any other fediverse platform they use. They can search for:

• Your handle (e.g. @blog@write.as)
• Your blog's URL (e.g. https://write.as/blog/)

Once they've found it, they can click the “Follow” button they see there.

Fediverse mentions

You can mention other users in the fediverse by simply inserting their full handle in your blog posts — for example, @handle@their.instance

Once you publish your post, any users you've mentioned will receive a notification!

Troubleshooting

Changing your username

The ActivityPub protocol doesn't support changing your handle. So if you change the username part of your handle for a federated blog, users will no longer receive your blog updates. Instead, they'll need to follow your new handle.

Using a custom domain

Similarly to changing your username, if you change the domain part of your handle while you have fediverse followers, they will no longer receive your updates. Instead, they'll need to follow your new handle.

We recommend setting up your custom domain and settling on a permanent handle before enabling Federation and letting people know they can follow you in the fediverse.

Additional Troubleshooting

If you run into any other trouble with your blog's federation, use this topic on our discussion forum for help. If a solution is not presented to your problem there, report your problem on that topic and the community will help.

Demo

To see federation in action, watch a demo of how it works.

Getting Started

Go to your Blogs page. Under the first blog there will be the New Blog... option. Click it and you will be prompted to fill in the name of the blog. Fill in a unique name for your blog and click the Create button.

Once you click the Create button you will see the blog appear in the list of blogs on your Blogs page. You just created a new Write.as blog!

Title & Alias

There are a couple things to know about your newly created blog. Each Write.as blog comes with an alias and a title. Both of these are taken from the name you gave your blog when you created it.

The alias is the unique and unchangeable slug in your blog's url. In the previous example, the name “Blog for Writing” creates the alias “blog-for-writing”. This will appear in the url: write.as/blog-for-writing. The title is the title displayed on your blog. If you want a particular alias for your blog, you should enter that when creating a blog, and then go to the new blog's Customize page and change the title to what you want.

To continue upon the previous example, we can go to the new blog's Customize page and change the blog's title from “Blogs for Writing” to “Blogs for Typing”. Notice how the new title appears on the blog but the alias is still “blog-for-writing”:

Identity

When you create a new blog, it is a unique, individual identity. No reader can see that your blogs come from the same account. Only you know through your Blogs page. This means that each blog can be used however you want.

Writing automatically saves to the device you're writing on and works even with a spotty internet connection, so you'll always have access to your draft from the same device and browser that you started it on.

This feature shines when you need it most:

We lost power yesterday because of PG&E, and I was worried my day’s draft was lost, but upon restart the [draft] was right there!

— Alexy Khrabrov (@ChiefScientist) November 11, 2019

Especially working on an old laptop that occasionally likes to overheat and shut down, one of my favorite things about Write.as is never worrying about losing my work.

— Matt Baer (@ilikebeans) September 6, 2019

So, lemme say – Thank Dog for Write.as because I just wrote out a [...] PAGE of stuff on Tumblr just now, and when I hit “publish” on Tumblr, it said “Meesly little error, try again!” aaand.... yea, I lost the blog post. Is that EVER acceptable???

— tmo 🤺 (@tomxee) August 12, 2019

Get peace of mind with autosaving drafts from Write.as.

Getting Started

We will assume you have your Ghost site running. If not, check out their resource guide for setting up one. Within the admin panel of your Ghost site, click Integrations. From there, click the bottom option of adding a custom integration.

Add a name to the integration and then click Create. From there it will redirect you to the Write.as integration details.

You will need two things: the Admin API key and the API URL. Open up a window for your blogs page and scroll down to Channels. You should see an option for enabling Ghost. Click the button.

Write.as will ask for your Admin API Key and API URL (called “Ghost Instance URL” in the form). Copy and paste those values into the form and click Connect.

When you go back to the blogs page, the Ghost integration should now appear under Channels listed as your Ghost blog's URL.

Cross-Posting to Ghost

Now that cross-posting to your Ghost site is set up, let's test it out. Open up the editor and write up a post, whether anonymous or for one of your blogs. When the post is ready, open up the Publish to... drop-down. Below the Anonymous and blog options is one for publishing to your Ghost site.

Click to enable and publish the post.

When you go to the Ghost site connected to Write.as, the post you just published will be there – a title (if there is none it will be called “Untitled”), the body of the post, and images (if you added them). At the time of publication, hashtags are unsupported.

After this, Ghost cross-posting is automatically enabled for any future post you make – no clicking the Ghost option every time. But if you do not want a post to go to your Ghost instance, just return to the Publish To... dropdown and toggle off the Ghost option. Turn it back on when you feel ready to cross-post again. The free plan allows 3 cross-posts a month. With a Pro subscription you can enjoy unlimited cross-posting.

We believe you should be able to write freely and syndicate freely. Take your writing to a place where you can take full advantage of modern online publications with cross-posting to Ghost.

#crosspost

Getting Started

Go to your blogs page and scroll down to Channels. You should see an option for enabling Tumblr. Click the button.

Tumblr will ask whether you want Write.as to access your account. That access allows Write.as to send your posts over to Tumblr. You will either be prompted to sign into your Tumblr account or to “Allow” if you are already signed on.

Once you agree to grant access, you will be redirected to the blogs page on Write.as. Scroll down to the Channel section again. Now there is your Tumblr account as an available channel for distributing your Write.as posts!

Cross-Posting to Tumblr

Now that Tumblr cross-posting is set up, let's test it out. Open up the editor and write a post. It can be anonymous or for one of your blogs. When the post is ready, open up the Publish to... drop-down. Below the Anonymous and blog options is one for publishing to your Tumblr account.

Click to enable and publish the post.

When you go to the Tumblr profile connected to Write.as, the post you just published will be there – a title (if you added one), the body of the post, and all of the tags in your post (if you added them).

If you include any images in your post (see how to), they will appear in the Tumblr post as well. Note: this is not available for anonymous posts.

With Write.as you not only get a focused writing experience but a focused publishing experience. Push your thoughts wherever you curate them. Connect your writing to a multitude of multimedia with cross-posting to Tumblr.

#crosspost

Getting Started

Go to your blogs page and scroll down to Channels. You should see an option for enabling Twitter. Click the button.

Twitter will ask whether you want Write.as to access your account. That access allows Write.as to send your posts over to Twitter. You will either be prompted to sign into your Twitter account or to “Agree” if you are already signed on.

Once you agree to grant access, you will be redirected to the blogs page on Write.as. A message should appear that it successfully connected to your Twitter account.

Scroll down to the Channel section again. Now there is your Twitter account as an available channel for distributing your Write.as posts!

Cross-Posting to Twitter

Now that Twitter cross-posting is set up, let's test it out. Open up the editor and write up an anonymous post. When the post is ready, open up the Publish to... drop-down. Below the Anonymous and blog options is one for publishing to your Twitter account.

Click to enable and publish the post.

When you go to the Twitter profile connected to Write.as, the post you just published will be there – either a title (if you added one) or as much of the post that can fit into a tweet, the URL to your post, and the first three hashtags in your post (if you added them).

You will also see that Twitter shows a “card” for your Write.as post. The default is a Write.as icon, but if you include any images in your post (see how to), the first one in your post will appear in the card. Note: this is not available for anonymous posts.

After this, Twitter cross-posting is automatically enabled for any future post you make – no clicking the Twitter option every time. But if you do not want a post to go to Twitter, just go back to the Publish To... dropdown and toggle off the Twitter option. Turn it back on when you feel ready to cross-post again. The free plan allows 3 cross-posts a month. With a Pro subscription you can enjoy unlimited cross-posting.

Don't let a character-limit stop you from fully expressing yourself. Join the conversation without compromise by crossposting from Write.as to Twitter.

#crosspost