Publish is a separate Mac app from Narrative for building blog posts from your photos and publishing them to your website. This guide walks you through building your first post, from adding photos to publishing it.

Watch this video for a quick tour, then follow the steps below.

To start building a post in Publish, create a new post from the home screen and choose the folder of photos you want to use. Learn about the Publish home screen.

Once your photos are imported, they show in the gallery panel on the left side of Publish. You can add any photo in the gallery panel to your post. Learn about the gallery panel.

To add a photo to your post, drag it from the gallery panel and drop it into the layout.

Once you've added your first photo, you can drag more photos in around it. A blue line shows where the photo will go when you drop it.

You can also click a photo in the gallery panel to add it to your post, or use the Magic Wand button to add lots of photos at once.

Learn more about adding photos to your post.

To rearrange your post, drag a photo and drop it where you want it. If you drag a photo over another photo, the two swap places.

Publish has tools to help you build your post quickly and make it look good. Here are some of them.

Magic Wand: builds a post for you in one click, then you can rearrange it how you like. Learn about the Magic Wand button.

Text Block: adds text to your post that takes on your website's styling.

Learn about adding text to your post.

Blank Space: adds empty space to your post. It works like a photo, only empty.

Learn about Blank Space.

Download Button: lets people viewing your post download its photos.

Learn about the Download Button.

Crop and Resize: double-click any photo or blank space to crop it and change its size.

Learn about cropping and resizing.

SEO: set up your post's SEO (search engine optimization, which helps your post show up in search results like Google) right in Publish. A traffic light system shows what to do to help your post rank well.

Learn about SEO in Publish.

Pinterest Pins: adds Pinterest buttons to the photos in your post, so people can share them more easily. Learn about Pinterest Pins.

Note: Facebook Comments no longer works in Publish. Learn more about Facebook Comments.

Layout Animation: makes your photos slide in, fade in or both as people scroll through your post. Learn about adding animation.

Lightbox: lets people click a photo in your post to see it full screen, so your post works like a slideshow. This works especially well on phones. Learn about Lightbox.

Once you've finished building your post, you can publish it to your website. Click the Publish button in the bottom right. The first time you publish, you set up your publishing settings for your website.

Learn how to publish to your website.

Once you've published your post, it shows on your website.

To learn more, follow the links in each section, or browse the other Publish articles in our Help Center. If you have questions, contact us through the chat bubble or at [email protected].