An example of Editorial Comments as they appear in the WordPress post editor.

Our WordPress system at Global Voices (GV) features a collaborative tool called Edit Flow that allows you to send internal notifications and leave internal comments to others on the team about a story or translation. The notifications are sent by email; the comments appear in a thread at the bottom of the post editor of a story or translation — below the fields for the headline, body, tagline and excerpt — and are only visible internally.

The advantage of Edit Flow is everything is kept in one place: both the actual story or translation and all the discussion related to it. Edit Flow also offers a straightforward way for volunteers to notify their editors that a draft story or translation is ready for revision. Use of Edit Flow to manage editorial processes throughout Global Voices is strongly recommended.

How Edit Flow looks in practice

An example of Edit Flow in practice might look like this. Imagine a volunteer translates a story and wants to submit it for review by their Translation Manager:

• The translator subscribes the Translation Manager to their translation.
• The translator changes the translation’s status from “Draft” to “Submit for Review.”
• The Translation Manager receives an automatic email alerting them to the fact that there is a translation ready for their review.
• The Translation Manager clicks on a link in the email, which takes them directly to the draft translation.
• After revising the translation, the Translation Manager leaves feedback for the translator in an Editorial Comment.
• The translator receives an automatic email with a copy of the Editorial Comment.
• The translator clicks on a link in the email, which takes them directly to the draft translation.
• The translator responds to the Translation Manager’s comment with an Editorial Comment of their own.
• The Translation Manager receives an automatic email with a copy of the Editorial Comment.
• The Translation Manager clicks on a link in the email, which takes them directly to the draft translation.
• Satisfied that the translator responded to their feedback, the Translation Manager publishes the translation.
• The translator receives an automatic email alerting them to the fact that their translation was published.

How to use Edit Flow properly

There are three important concepts to understand when it comes to Edit Flow: notifications, post statuses and Editorial Comments.

Notifications

Notifications are emails sent to all users who are “subscribed” to a WordPress post (a story or translation) when something important happens, and they are at the heart of Edit Flow. Each notification comes with tons of useful information for the user such as what happened on the post to cause the notification and a link directly to edit the post.

Notifications are sent in the following situations:

• An “Editorial Comment” is submitted (see below)
• The status of a post changes (see below):
  • A post that was in draft is scheduled to be published
  • A post that was in draft is published
  • A post that was in draft is “Submitted for Review,” moving from a “Draft” status to a “Pending Review” status
  • A post that was “Pending Review” is reverted to “Draft” status

For notifications to be sent properly, first you must select who your status change or comment is addressed to – before you take any other action. Who should be notified by email?

With the post editor for story or translation open in WordPress, scroll down the page until you see a section labeled Notifications. You will see two columns:

• Under the Users column, you can locate individuals who should be notified and select the checkbox next to their name.
• Under the User Groups column, you can locate a relevant group of people who should be jointly notified and select the checkbox next to the group’s name. For example, some sites may have a user group called “Sub-Editors” or “Translation Manager”; selecting it will send a notification email to all of the people who belong to that group.

The “Notifications” section of Edit Flow with “Users” and “User Groups.”

When you have successfully subscribed someone to receive notifications for a story or translation, their name will flash green. To unsubscribe a user, simply uncheck them in the list.

Subscribing a user to receive Edit Flow notifications. Their name will flash green to confirm that they have been subscribed successfully.

Adding a user in Notifications automatically grants them access to edit the post, even if they couldn't normally. This means you can use Edit Flow to invite another person to collaborate, even if they normally don't have the user account permissions to edit other people's posts.

Post statuses

Now that you’ve selected who should be subscribed to receive notifications for a story or translation, they will receive emails that alert them each time the status of a post is changed from one to another. Statuses include:

• Draft: This status is applied by default to a new post and is used to “unpublish” a story or translation that has been published.
• Pending: This status is applied when a story or translation has been “Submitted for Review,” a button that is found next to the “Save” button at the top of the post editor.
• Scheduled: This status is applied when a story or translation is scheduled to publish at a later date.
• Published: This status is applied when a story or translation is published.
• Trash: This status is applied when a story or translation is deleted.

Editorial Comments

Now that you’ve selected who should be subscribed to receive notifications for a story or translation, they will receive emails that alert them each time an “Editorial Comment” is left on the post.

Editorial Comments appear near the bottom of the post editor. They are never seen by the public, only by users who are able to log in and edit the post. They will remain there forever; anyone who visits the post editor will be able to review the full history of discussion about a story or translation without having to ask.

Remember that you must subscribe people to receive notifications before you submit an Editorial Comment, otherwise they will not be alerted to your comment.

To leave an Editorial Comment, scroll down the page until you see a section labeled Editorial Comments. Click the Respond to this Post button, type your comment in the text box, then click Submit Response.

Configuring the Edit Flow plugin (advanced)

Most GV sites will already have the Edit Flow plugin enabled and configured. The information below goes beyond the day-to-day use of the plugin — it is intended only as a reference for people who are involved in the management of a GV site. Contact the Tech Lead for support.

Turning on the plugin

Enabling Edit Flow is simple and follows the usual procedure for turning on a plugin in WP. Go to Plugins, find “Edit Flow” and click Activate.

Do not do this until you have read the rest of this page! The plugin has many features aren't necessarily useful for most sites and some which are downright dangerous and could result in lost posts. Enabling Edit Flow on a new site should be immediately followed by reviewing each “component” to decide if it should be disabled and how to configure it.

Edit Flow Components

Edit Flow has 8 components. The plugin usually enables them all immediately, but on the main GV and Lingua sites several are disabled by code in our theme, the details are mentioned below.

To manage Edit Flow settings visit the Edit Flow link in wp-admin dashboard.

Notifications – Vital, enables notifications for authors/editors for post edits and editorial comments. “Always notify blog admin” means notifying the email associated with the website, for example the main editor of the Lingua site.

User Groups – This component lets the admin create groups of people who can be bulk-subscribed to notifications on a post. This should be immediately disabled unless it has been configured to have meaningful groups for the current site because the default groups are confusing and non-functional.

Editorial Comments – Enables comments form in the post editor for discussion between authors and editors. Should always be enabled.

Editorial Metadata – Adds a widget to the sidebar of the post editor with custom fields to be used by editors. Should usually be disabled because the default fields are confusing and not useful for GV. Can be enabled if you have edited the list of fields to be meaningful for the site somehow.

Custom Statuses – This component enables more post status than just draft/pending/published, like “pitch” and “needs-review”. This should be disabled immediately unless carefully considered, because the default statuses are too complicated and posts assigned to custom statuses can be lost completely if the plugin is ever disabled.

Calendar – Creates an “Editorial Calendar” showing posts that were scheduled to be published in the future. This feature is not used heavily by GV but is harmless.

Story Budget – Adds a screen similar to the Calendar feature but sorted by category. Disabled for GV because it isn't useful to us.

Dashboard Widgets – Adds several widget to the wp-admin Dashboard (screen you see immediately after logging in). No risk to using them other than clutter.

Edit Flow Settings

Always Notify Blog Admin

In the Notifications component's Configure screen is an option for Always notify blog admin”. Setting this to “Enabled” will mean that the Admin Email (configured in Settings->General) will be automatically subscribed to every notification on the site.

On the main GV site we do not use this because it would be overwhelming for the managing editor, but on smaller Lingua sites it may be desirable. As an editor you should enable this if you want to get email every time a post is submitted for review or published.

User Groups Configuration

The User Groups component has a Manage User Groups button which offers a detailed interface for creating a group, naming it, adding a description and finally choosing the users that will be in it. By default this component should be disabled because the default groups are innapropriate for most sites.

To use User Groups you should first enable the component, then immediately click Manage User Groups and remove all the example groups that are there. Once you have a clean slate you can create your own groups after considering the guidelines below.
Creating User Groups

• Go to Edit Flow in the admin sidebar then click Manage User Groups.
• Make sure the default groups (e.g. “Photographers”) have been deleted by hovering over the name and clicking Delete.
• On the left-hand side add a new group by giving it a name (e.g. “Proofreaders”) and a description that authors will see (e.g. “Check this box to subscribe people that will review your text for grammar and spelling”).
• Click Add New User Group.

Editing users in a Group

The above steps will have created a group but it will have no members in it.

• In the list on the right-hand side of the screen click on the name of a group.
• Scroll through the list of users and tick the checkbox of the ones you want to be in the group.
• Click the Selected button in the top right corner to show only users already ticked.
• Click Update User Group button on the left to save the group.

Warning: The groups feature is very powerful but also potentially annoying. If the group has many users they will all be notified on every change to the post and some will be annoyed at the flow. Please pay attention to the reactions of your community and alter your use of groups if the email output becomes overwhelming.
Lingua Sites: Recommend User Group Configurations

• For very small Lingua sites the Always Notify Blog Admin setting described above may be more effective, as it will ensure you know everything that happens on the site without your authors having to find the Notifications box and check a user group.
• For Lingua sites with more activity an “Editor” group with only the main site managers may be a good idea, so translators can subscribe the editors without having to remember their name.
• For large Lingua sites with groups of volunteers doing specific jobs (e.g “sub-editors” or “proofreaders”) you may want to create groups for them so that authors/translators an quickly notify the group about the post.