GovWire

1. Select the New document tab in Whitehall publisher.

2. Select the document type you want to create and click the Next button.

3. If the document has a number of sub-types (for example, publications, news articles, guidance and speeches), select the relevant one from the dropdown menu at the top of the page.

4. Complete the Title field using a maximum of 65 characters. Titles must be unique and cannot be changed once published. Titles do not need a full stop. When you save your document this will become its slug, which users will see as the last section of the page URL.

5. Complete the Summary field using a maximum of 160 characters. This must be written as a complete sentence with a full stop.

6. Complete the Body section using Markdown to format things like headings, bullets and links. You can paste formatted text from a document into the Body section and itll be converted into Markdown. Common Markdown commands are also listed on the right-hand side of the page.

7. Below the Body section, there are different fields you can fill in depending on the content type youre creating. For example, youll usually need to add associations.

8. Before you save, you can also set a review date and limit access to the draft document. You can also schedule publication of the document for a specific date and time.

9. Save your document by either clicking Save (which keeps you on the edit document page) or Save and go to document summary (where you can add topic taxonomy tags).

Once a document has been saved, you can add attachments.

If you do not want to save your document, click the cancel link at the bottom of the page. This will delete your draft and there will be no record of your document in Whitehall publisher.

You can set an optional review date if you need to maintain your content over time. On the date of review, youll be sent an email notification to check the content. You can then update the content or set a new review date.

Limit access

You can limit access to documents so that they can only be edited and published by editors in the department its tagged to. Once published it can be accessed by all editors.

Only limit access if the information is confidential.

You cannot sync limited access documents between the Production and Integration environments.

You can preview the body copy of your document in several ways.

Preview toggle

For quick checks, like seeing if your Markdown is correct, you can use the preview toggle.

1. Click Preview at the top of your Body text box. This will show you how your text will look when published.

2. Review your content and formatting.

3. Click Back to edit to return to your work.

The toggle button just shows you how text has been formatted. It does not save your work.

Preview entire document

You also can check how a document will appear when published on GOV.UK. You can either:

• save your document by clicking the Save button and selecting the Preview on website link
• save your document by clicking the Save and go to document summary button and selecting the Preview on website link

Previews for stakeholders or policy teams

There are two ways to share previews of documents with people who do not have access to Whitehall publisher. You can either:

• send the document preview link to someone so they can see how it will appear on GOV.UK
• use fact check to share the document and get comments

Using document preview links

Document preview links are available for:

• news articles
• speeches
• case studies
• detailed guides
• publications
• consultations
• document collections
• statistical datasets
• corporate information pages

To get a document preview link:

1. Save your document by clicking the Save and go to document summary button (not the Save button).

2. Under the Preview heading, click the Share document preview dropdown.

3. Click Copy link to copy the link.

Youre responsible for who you share draft documents with. The preview link will only work for the page youre previewing.

The preview link will expire after 30 days or when the document is published. Whitehall publisher will say when the link will expire.

You can reset and generate a new preview link if youve shared the link with the wrong person or the link has expired. The previous preview link will be disabled. To do this:

1. Select Generate new link - youll get a confirmation saying a new link has been generated
2. Select Copy link to copy and get your new preview link.