Publishing

Editors and Chief Editors have the ability to:

• publish content submitted to you for approval
• control timing by setting the publish and expiration dates
• close content or create new versions
  

These tasks can be performed in various places in the Silva Management Area:

• the publish screen of versioned content, such as documents
  
• the publish screen of folders (and publications)
• the editor screen of versioned content
  
• the contents screen of folders (and publications)
  

The difference between the four is a matter of efficiency. In the publish screen of a document, you can only publish that document. In the publish screen of folders, you can publish multiple documents in one go, including documents nested in subfolders. These publish screens also allow fine grained control of publication and expiration times in the future.

The content screen of folders allows simple toggling between published and closed. Often you just want to close a document so you can move it, and republish it immediately, so there are close and publish now buttons available. In the contents screen you can only see items on one level, so you only publish (alt-p) and close (alt-l) items in that folder.

Fig.1. The controls bar of the contents screen.

In the editor screen there is also a publish now (alt-p) button that immediately publishes the content. A new version can then be created. (If you work with different screens in the tabs of your browser, say, one for the editor and one for public preview,  it speeds up the process considerably.)

Approve, publish, and export content

Bulk publishing operations occur in the publish screen. Documents, folders, and entire publications can be published to the web (made public).

Fig. 2. The publish screen as Editors and Chief Editors see it.

Editor publishes content

1. Navigate to the Document, Folder or Publication you wish to work on.
   Then click the publish tab to get to the publishing area for that item. (Fig. 1.)
2. Place a checkmark next to the items you wish to publish. You can use the “select all” selector (alt-a) as well. (Fig. 1)
3. Fill in an expiration time if necessary. Click the publish now button (alt-p). All documents will be immediately opened to the public.
4. Alternatively, fill in a publication date if the documents should be published in the future (time is optional). If necessary, fill in an expiration date too. Click the approve for later button (alt-l).
5. Check the returning screen for success or failure of your approval.
6. Any time after approval you can intercept publication via the revoke approval button (alt-v). In this case it’s a good idea to do this via the publish screen of the document, since you can fill in a message in the “Message to author(s)” textarea to inform the author about the reason for the revocation.
7. You can close public content via the close (alt-c) button if you decide it should taken offline.

Notes

• You can make new versions of closed content later on.
• Authors may make new versions (editable copies) to work on.
• The difference between revoking approval and closing is that the link (re)coloration indicates a problem with the document. If approval is revoked, the link turns red. Closed documents turn gray, which denotes the normal end of the life cycle of that document. (Fig.1.)
  
• If you use the “select all” selector (alt-a) to publish everything, remember that publications are not transparent. The publish action does not affect content within a nested publication. You must publish the contents of each publication separately.

Publication and expiration time

If content is approved, it will become publicly visible only within the time frame between publish time and expiration time. If you do not set an expiration, the published content will remain public forever, or until someone closes it. Note that you have to check the “clear expiration time?” checkbox when you want to remove the expiration, otherwise the expiration time will remain.

Content that is approved or published can have its expiration date settings changed. Fill in the new dates (time is optional) and click the update timing button (alt-u).

Publication state of Publications and Folders

You cannot publish Publications and Folders. Instead their publication state is managed via the content. A Folder is considered published if it contains published content.

Reading information in the Publish screen

If you want to check the condition of the content, you’ll find the information in the listing table of the Publish screen. This does not depend on your role; the information is always visible. In the listing ids are shown on the left (note that only publicly visible items appear, no folders or assets). Titles are indented to show the publication structure.

The relevant status information can be found in the three rightmost columns of the listing table (discussed from left to right).

Revision column

Displays information about the current version. The possible states are:

• draft: (link color is red, a ‘stop’ color) the content is waiting for approval.
• pending: (link color is dark yellow, like a stoplight) the approval task is on some Editor’s To-Do list.
• approved: (link color is green, a ‘go’) the content has been approved, but is not published yet. (You must revoke the approval before re-editing it.)
• published: (link color is blue, a normal link) the content is visible for the public.
• closed: (link color is gray) indicates that there is no new version and the public version is closed. You can create a new version by clicking the edit link, or use the new version button (alt-n) for a bulk operation.

Publication due column

If a there is a publish time set in the future, the date is listed. Otherwise the cell is empty.

Expiration due column

If a there is an expiration time set, the date is listed. Otherwise the cell is empty.

Published column

Information about the published, non-editable version. This may contain a blue “published” link for currently public versions, a gray “closed” note for closed or expired versions, or be empty if there is no public version. If the content is published then it’s linked to the publicly visible page. If an expiration time is set, the publish range of the content is shown.

Versioning of documents

Once content is published a new version can be created. The published version stays online for the public, while the editable versions can be worked on, and approved with a publication date in the future. (see document versioning)

Exporting content

The entire text of publications, folders, and documents can be exported as Silva XML, or – if the Docma server is running on your network – as an MSWord document, which can then be edited and re-imported. These activities occur via the export link in the publish screen (see exporting content).