May 4, 2010 I’d like to introduce you to one of the best tools available for managing editorial workflow within WordPress. If you have ever tried to use WordPress through an edited and tiered composition process, then you already know the limitations and bulkiness one must endure in attempting to collaborate. Sure, the “draft” feature lets you save a work in progress or schedule its publishing but it’s hardly a complex set of tools for the modern day WordPress Editorial Desk.
Enter the Edit Flow Project! This group of developers has created a customizable plugin that allows multiple users to comment, make recommendations, brainstorm together, leave editorial comments and much more.One of the main purposes of the Edit Flow plugin is to empower newsrooms, blog networks and multi-user blogs to manage more of their editorial workflow from within the WordPress admin.
As you know, the default WordPress admin doesn’t naturally lend itself to works in progress and collaboration. The only distinctions available on a post in process are “draft” or “pending review.” Edit Flow expands the scope of your collaborative pieces with additional post statuses: assigned, pitched, and waiting for feedback.
One of the coolest features of the latest Version 0.2 is the Quick Pitch dashboard widget for tossing around story ideas and adopting the “pitch” status for a post.
With Edit Flow plugin, you can easily work collaboratively on several projects in different stages of completion, as well as hash out new ideas in a group setting on the go. This can save a virtual newsroom lots of time from concept to post; it also eases the transition from print to online media.
The best thing about Edit Flow is that it is still actively in development, which means more tasty features to come! Some of the new functions being considered include:
- More granular email notifications, including the ability to have a notification go to a predefined group of people
- User groups with functionality to define specific groups of users within WordPress. For instance, a user could be included in a writer’s group and have the ability to pitch new assignments or be included in a copy editor’s group and have the ability to mark pieces as “copy edited.”
- Visualization of the editorial workflow data within WordPress, let it be through a calendar view, an activity stream, or other.
- The ability to define newsroom-specific metadata for each post.
- Functionality to allow custom definition of a required set of actions for each piece. These could be “copy-edit,” “fact-check,” etc.
If you’re struggling to manage a multi-user blog or collaborative team with your current dashboard capabilities, let Edit Flow harness the power of WordPress publishing for you. If you’ve used this plugin before, feel free to give it a little mini-review in the comments and let us know your thoughts.
Thanks for reviewing Edit Flow, Sarah! We’ve got some really cool stuff in the works and we’re always looking to hear from people using it or just generally struggling with their workflow! Send me an email at batmoo@gmail.com.
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Wow, thanks a lot. I believe it will help me with couple of my sites.
Mike
This is a great example of exactly why strategic IT governance must be in place inside an organisation.
If the only process you have is editorial, this is a great tool. However, many organisations have hundreds of internal processes, few of which relate to editorial. Under those circumstances, there needs to be consideration given to a generic workflow capability that can be used for all processes across the entire organisation: from car pool applications, job applications. Trying to use a bespoke workflow tool for every process in a large organisation is fraught with complaexity, hugely expensive to administer, and misses the integration opportunities with other organisations and customers.
Miss the strategic context at your peril.
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Completely have to agree with David, If the only process you have is editorial, this is a great tool.
Mike
Never have heard of this plugin, but I am going to install it and see how it works for me. Based on your article here it looks like a resourceful plugin to add.
Thanks
Edit Flow is an awesome tool to help manage editorial workflow on a site with multiple authors.
I’m wondering… does anybody know how to get custom post types to display based on their statuses? I am able to see in my dashboard widget that there are two custom posts pending review, but when I click on “pending review,” I am taken to a blank screen. At the top, it says “posts,” so I believe that nothing is displaying because these are custom post types.
Any ideas?
Nice tip mentioned here
Plugins like this and the Revionary plugin are really good tools for editing before publishing. I wonder if there is a plugin that allows content to be pending after being publised/added to wordpress db? Such as if a user changes a custom field, if there is a plugin that can create a “pending” instance until an administrator approves it.
Edit Flow plugin definitely looks great and I think even for small websites, it’ll be very good too. My only concern is do you need WPMU in order to do this? or just a normal wordpress could do that too?
Oh,…does anybody know how to get custom post types to display based on their statuses? I am able to see in my dashboard widget that there are two custom posts pending review, but when I click on “pending review,” I am taken to a blank screen. At the top, it says “posts,” so I believe that nothing is displaying because these are custom post types.
@Johnson Wright
Edit Flow works on both MU and regular WordPress.
@Jams Jobs
We’re working on adding full support for custom post types. That should hopefully come with our next release.
Very good plugin, thank you
I like the look of this. I trust it works with the WP3.0 as well as the WPMU?
One thing I have looked for in the past but failed to find is a way to set it so that authors of posts are responsible (or share the task) of moderating comments.
I run a blog for a group of people that blog about music, but each person has their own mini fanbase. It would be good to be able to set it so that rather than admin getting the emails about comments, each of them got emailed regarding comments on their authored posts. Is that something that could be added to Edit Flow maybe?