Writing Helper Brings Editing Collaboration to WordPress

As professional bloggers will tell you, the collaboration and archival process for editing posts is one of the most onerous parts of the job. Hey, writing is the easy part! WordPress announced today that it is unveiling a set of new features to its platform called Writing Helper that should make the editorial process easier.

Writing Helper is a box that sits under the “Add a Post” screen and adds new features to the WordPress platform. The most interesting is the “Request Feedback” tool that allows users to share posts before they are published by emailing a collaborator a private link to the draft. Their comments will be seen in the post editor for easy reference.

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The other feature to the Writing Helper is the “Copy A Post” that allows a writer to use a previous post as a base for a new post, importing title, tags, content and categories to help save time. For instance, yesterday we wrote about Sony’s Playstation Network hack bringing down the platform. Later in the day Sony updated the status saying that the personal data on 70 million accounts was compromised. Same story, two posts that shows a good example of how the Writing Helper could have been beneficial.

WordPress is an intuitive content management system, and a lot of writers swear by it as the only platform they care to use. These features, while interesting, should probably have been integrated a while ago. Copy A Post is a minor feature and useful for developing breaking stories that necessitate continuous updates with new posts. Request Feedback will make WordPress pre-publish sharing simpler, and having inline notes within the editor should be a basic feature to any CMS.

WordPress has been experimenting with other features to help writers, such as “distraction free blogging,” a full-screen template that removes all other apps from the editor so you can focus on writing. As an ecosystem, WordPress also has thousands of plug-ins that can give a writer just about any functionality they may desire.

WordPress skills are one of the most sought after by employers, according to Elance, a freelance job auctioning service. So, put down your nunchuks and bow and arrow and get back to the keyboard.

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