Question · Getting started
Can readers see this guide?
For: admins and authorsPage 8 of 71
Answer
Only if an admin turns on Appearance & settings → General → Public user manual. It then appears at /user-manual for everyone, read-only and without any of your data. It is off by default.
Where to find it
This page of the admin: /admin/appearance. Admins and authors can open it.
Settings on this page
What each setting does and its default. Defaults only: the manual never shows the values saved on a site.
General
Every Appearance change is saved as a private draft, previewed on the real pages and published explicitly; Revision history keeps every version for rollback.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Site name | — | — |
| Publication name | Used in news sitemaps and structured data. | — |
| Tagline | Shown on the generated share card. | — |
| Description | The default meta description and footer text (50–200 characters). | — |
| Editorial time zone | Time zone for dates across the site. | the site's time zone |
| Date format | 29 Oct 2026, Oct 29, 2026, 29 October 2026 or 2026-10-29. | 29 Oct 2026 |
| Public contact email | Shown on the contact page and, if enabled, in the footer. | — |
| Location | Shown next to the contact email. | — |
| GitHub / LinkedIn / X / YouTube / Mastodon | Social profile links (https only) used by the header, footer and author pages. | — |
| Comments | Signed-in readers can comment and reply under posts. Each post can also lock or close its discussion. | on |
| New reader comments need approval | Readers' comments appear after a moderator approves them. Authors' and admins' comments never wait. | on |
| Readers can edit their comments for | 0 means no time limit. Comments can always be deleted by their author. | 1440 min |
| Reader sign-up | New accounts by email or Google/GitHub. Existing users can always sign in. | on |
| Contact form | Shown on /contact; messages arrive in Admin → Messages. | on |
| Public user manual | Publishes this guide at /user-manual for everyone (documentation and defaults only, no site data). | off |
| Enable maintenance mode | Readers see a maintenance page instead of the site; staff can still sign in. | off |
| Message for readers | Shown on the maintenance page (up to 300 characters). | — |
| Ask crawlers to retry after | Sent to search engines as Retry-After (5–1440 minutes). | 30 min |
Branding
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show the site name next to the logo | — | on |
| Logo (light theme) | From the media library. | — |
| Logo (dark theme, optional) | Used when the dark theme is on; empty uses the light logo. | — |
| Logo on phones (optional) | A compact mark for narrow screens. | — |
| Favicon | — | — |
| Apple touch icon | The icon used when someone adds the site to an iPhone home screen. | — |
| Share image | Default image for links shared on social networks. | — |
Header
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Preset | 4 starting layouts. | standard |
| Width | Page width or full width. | page width |
| Height | Compact, regular or tall. | regular |
| Navigation position | After logo, centred or right. | — |
| Logo size | Small, medium or large. | — |
| Keep the header visible while scrolling | — | on |
| Background | Page, tinted, accent or an image (with mobile crop and overlay). | — |
| Search | Show the search button. | — |
| Light/dark switch | Also controls the theme selector in the footer and mobile menu. | — |
| Account avatar and menu | When hidden, readers can still sign in at /login; consider a menu link to it. | — |
| Social profile icons | On wide screens only; profiles come from General. | — |
| Call-to-action button | A highlighted button in the header. | — |
| Button text | Up to 24 characters. | — |
| Button link | A site path like /hire-me or an https link. | — |
| Show the announcement | A bar above the header. | — |
| Text | The announcement text (up to 200 characters). | — |
| Link (optional) | Where the announcement leads. | — |
| Style | Neutral, accent or warning. | — |
| Readers can dismiss it | Remembered in their browser until the text changes. | — |
Navigation
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Menus | Up to 8 menus; choose which one is the header menu (1–8 top-level items). | — |
| Menu items | Link to pages, topics, sections, authors or https URLs; one level of sub-items; reorder with arrow buttons or drag-and-drop; indent/outdent; open in a new tab. | — |
| Previews | Desktop and phone previews of the header menu. | — |
Footer
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Preset | Columns, simple or centred. | — |
| Alignment | Left or centre. | — |
| Spacing | Compact, regular or spacious. | — |
| Background | Tinted, page, inverted or an image. | — |
| Heading / Links from / Menu | Up to 4 columns, each with a heading and links from a menu or the topic list. | — |
| Logo and site name | — | — |
| Description | Empty uses the site description from General. | — |
| Social profile links | — | — |
| RSS feed link | — | — |
| Contact email and location | From General → Contact. | — |
| Copyright line | {year} becomes the current year and {site} the site name. Policy links and Privacy choices are always present. | — |
Typography & colours
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Preset | Default, Editorial, Midnight or High contrast. | — |
| Body font / Heading font | Inter, IBM Plex Sans, Source Sans 3 or Source Serif 4. | — |
| Code font | JetBrains Mono or IBM Plex Mono. | — |
| Heading weight | Semibold, bold or extra bold. | — |
| Text size | Default, larger or largest. Scales all text; form inputs never go below 16 px. | — |
| Article line height | 1.5–1.9. | — |
| Light and dark palettes | Page, cards, text, secondary, meta, borders, accent and links, with live contrast ratios. | — |
| Page width | 64–88 rem. | — |
| Article reading width | 36–50 rem; about 70 characters per line at 43 rem. | — |
| Spacing between sections | Compact, comfortable or spacious. | — |
| Corner radius | None, small, medium or large. | — |
| Buttons and inputs | Rounded, pill or square. | — |
| Default theme for new visitors | Follow device, light or dark. Readers can still switch if the switch is shown. | follow device |
Homepage
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Sections | Introduction, latest articles, hand-picked articles, topics, projects, editorial standards, author bio, call to action and a plain-text block: add, remove, reorder, hide or duplicate. | — |
| Section content | Headings, text, links, images, layout, spacing and background; searchable pickers for articles and topics. | — |
| Author | Which author the author-bio section shows. | — |
Blog & articles
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | Grid or list. | — |
| Cards per row (wide screens) | 2 or 3. | — |
| Articles per page | 6–24. | — |
| Excerpt lines (0 hides it) | 0–4. | — |
| Cover image shape | 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, square or no cover. | — |
| Topic / Article type (News, Tutorial…) / Date / Reading time | What each listing card shows. | — |
| Reading width | Narrow, default or wide. | — |
| Body text size (desktop) | 16–19 px. | — |
| Breadcrumbs / Author in the byline / “Updated” date | What an article page shows. | — |
| Author card after the article | — | — |
| Show a table of contents | — | — |
| Only for articles with at least | 2–8 headings. | — |
| On wide screens | Table of contents in the right margin or above the article. | — |
| Related reading | Related articles under each post. | — |
| How many | 1–6 related articles. | — |
| Share links | Plain links to each network's share page: no third-party scripts. | — |
Media
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Image corners | Square, small or medium. | — |
| Captions | Centred or left. | — |
| Gallery columns | 2, 3 or 4. | — |
| Cloudflare R2 storage | Status: uploads need storage configured (Storage & email). | — |
SEO & integrations
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Homepage title | Up to 70 characters. | — |
| Title separator | |, ·, — or -. | — |
| Search result preview | How the homepage may look in Google. | — |
| Google Search Console verification | Status; tokens are set in Advanced settings. | — |
| Bing Webmaster Tools verification | Status; tokens are set in Advanced settings. | — |
| Google Analytics 4 | Status; loads in production only, with Consent Mode. | — |
| Google AdSense | Status and number of ad slots. | — |
| ads.txt | Whether /ads.txt is served. | — |
| Consent default | Denied everywhere until consent, or only in the EEA, UK and Switzerland. | — |
| IndexNow | Status; turned on in Integrations. | — |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Status; without it email sign-in and forms are unavailable. | — |
| Status; without it password resets are not sent. | — | |
| Social sign-in | Which providers are enabled. | — |
| Gemini image generation | Status; configured in Integrations. | — |
Hire me
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show the Hire me page | Off: /hire-me is not found and every call to action is hidden. Add the page to a menu in Navigation. | — |
| Availability | Available, limited, or not taking new work (keeps the page but hides booking buttons and the article call to action). | — |
| Availability note | A short line under the availability. | — |
| Headline | — | — |
| Introduction | — | — |
| Reply time (shown under the form) | — | — |
| Currency | — | — |
| Intro call booking link | Your Cal.com (or other https) booking page. Used by “Book an intro call” and by offers without their own link. | — |
| Open Cal.com links in a pop-up on the page | Cal.com's scheduler loads only when a visitor clicks Book. | — |
| Self-hosted Cal.com address (optional) | Only if you run Cal.com yourself. Bookings reach Admin → Bookings through a webhook (Advanced settings → Cal.com bookings). | — |
| Offer paid calls | Shown only while the page is on, you are taking work, both rates are set and the Razorpay keys are saved. | — |
| Title / Summary | For the paid call and each offer. | — |
| Price per minute in India (INR) | e.g. 50 → a 30-minute call costs ₹1,500. | — |
| Price per minute elsewhere (USD) | e.g. 1.5 → a 30-minute call costs $45. | — |
| Shortest call / Longest call | 5–480 minutes. | — |
| Lengths offered in steps of | 5–120 minutes. | — |
| Booking link after payment (optional) | Empty: the intro call link. | — |
| Offer this | Show an offer (consulting, freelance, speaking, mentoring). | — |
| Price from (0 = on request) / Per | The offer's starting price and unit. | — |
| Booking link for this offer (optional) | — | — |
| Show it | The call to action under articles, with its Text. | — |
Advanced (custom CSS)
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Apply custom CSS | Restricted CSS applied to the public site. | off |
| CSS | Validated, up to 10,000 characters. | — |