Updates: How to publish on GOV.UK
2024
Added information about updating consultations if the government response is delayed.
Updated guidance about featuring content on an organisation page to explain what Whitehall and non-Whitehall content can be featured.
Added more details about translating organisation pages.
Added details about how to create translated people and role pages.
New section added.
Updated information about mandatory tags.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Updated guidance about how to request a new account. GOV.UK leads and managing editors can request a new Whitehall Publisher account through GOV.UK Support.
2023
Removed references to specialist topic pages from 'Add associations (tagging) ' section.
The 'Crate a collection' section has been updated to reflect the design and workflow changes.
New section added.
New section added on email notifications.
Updated the 'Attributing images' section to reflect the current requirements for attributing images under a Creative Commons licence.
We've added Calls for evidence as a new content type in Whitehall. This guidance is on how to create, update and conclude a call for evidence on GOV.UK.
Updated the attachments Markdown section. The Markdown syntax has changed and you can now copy and paste the Markdown when you upload an attachment.
In the Create a new document section, removed an outdated step which is no longer available in Whitehall. Also added information on adding a review date to content.
We have introduced a new way of uploading an image in GOV.UK. The following sections have been updated to reflect the changes:
* content types what will always display a lead image
* formatting an image
* image file names
* uploading an image
* positioning images on a page
* attributing images
Updated the image Markdown section to reflect changes in Whitehall. Image file names are now used as the Markdown.
Alt text is no longer a mandatory field. This has been removed from the instructions.
Clarifying the process for adding attachments, linking to sections on a page, using subscript and superscript and adding footnotes.
Minor updates
Updated 'Preview content', 'Edit an existing (published) document', 'Adding attachments' and 'Replace, edit and delete attachments' sections have been updated as the edition summary page has moved to use the styling from the GOV.UK Design System. Some steps, buttons and links have changed when editing drafts, previewing content, or adding or updating attachments.
Updated references to the translations section on the edition summary page in the 'Add a new translation', 'Edit a translation' and 'Add translated attachments' sections.
2022
Updated ‘Adding attachments’ section. Reordering attachments has moved to a separate page - select ‘reorder attachments’ on the attachments page. Use the up and down buttons to reorder attachments, or select and hold on an attachment to reorder using drag and drop.
Added information on not using macros to 'Formatting attachments'
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Restructuring content based on user feedback. Adding information on how to fix a mistake in a published URL.
Updated ‘Create a new document’, ‘Create a collection’ and ‘Official documents’ sections with guidance on how ‘Save’ and ‘Save and continue’ work in Whitehall Publisher. ‘Save’ now keeps you on the edit document page, while ‘Save and continue’ takes you to the topic taxonomy tagging page.
Updated ‘Image’ section with guidance on how ‘Save’ works in Whitehall Publisher. ‘Save’ now keeps you on the edit document page, rather than taking you to the edition summary page.
Updated information in the 'Add topic tagging' section about how to add topic taxonomy tags to content in Whitehall Publisher.
Updated guidance in the 'Create and start a consultation' section about saving a consultation and adding taxonomy topic tags.
Updated guidance in the 'Create a statistics announcement' section about how to add topic taxonomy tags to statistics announcements.
Removed out of date information from the 'Create topical event details' section about adding topics to topical event details.
Added guidance on how to use Markdown for different bar chart styles, and information about colours and accessibility in bar charts.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Added information to the 'Manage your organisation’s accounts' and 'Signing in to Whitehall publisher' sections about about how to set up and manage 2-step verification. Added a new section called 'Reset your 2-step verification'.
Updated ‘Create a new document’, ‘Create a collection’ and ‘Official documents’ sections with guidance on how ‘Save’ and ‘Save and continue’ works in Whitehall Publisher. ‘Save’ will now take you to the edition summary page, rather than returning you to the edit document page.
Updated ‘Uploading an image’ section with guidance on how ‘Save’ and ‘Save and continue’ works in Whitehall Publisher. ‘Save’ will now take you to the edition summary page, rather than returning you to the edit document page.
Updated ‘Create and start a consultation’ section with guidance on how ‘Save’ and ‘Save and continue’ works in Whitehall Publisher. ‘Save’ will now take you to the edition summary page, rather than returning you to the edit document page.
Guidance on creating an SVG file has been added to the Images section.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Added guidance in 'How withdrawing works' section under 'How to unwithdraw content' about how and when to reuse previous withdrawal dates and explanations in Whitehall Publisher.
Updated guidance in the ‘preview content’ section. You can now preview CSV files when using a sharable document preview link.
Added information to the ‘create a new document’ section (point 7) about notifications for documents previously published on another website.
Updated guidance in the ‘preview content’ section. Shareable document preview links are now available for document collections.
Added guidance to the ‘preview content’ section about shareable document preview links in Whitehall Publisher.
Reviewing and publishing content
Added information about ‘shareable document preview links’ in Whitehall Publisher for fact checking content.
Added a section on how to add HTML attachments to corporate information pages.
Updated introduction as publishers can now use 'paste and convert to Markdown' to convert formatted text into commonly used Markdown in Whitehall publisher.
Updated 'create a new document' guidance as publishers can now paste formatted text into the 'body' section and Whitehall publisher will try to convert the text into commonly used Markdown.
Updates to the 'Close an organisation' section about what happens to tagged documents when an organisation closes
Under ##Add new translation
ADD:
###If you’re translating into a language that is written from right to left
There is a different way to format [link markdown](/guidance/how-to-publish-on-gov-uk/markdown#links) if you’re translating content into a language that reads from right to left (for example Arabic or Urdu).
The URL must come before the link text. For example, (URL)[link text] rather than [link text](URL).
$E
###Example
In English, you’d format the link markdown like this:
[Renew your tax disc](/tax-disc).For the Arabic translation, you’d format the link markdown like this:
(/tax-disc)[قم بتجديد قرص الضرائب الخاص بك].$E
REASON:
There is a different way to format link markdown for languages that read from right to left.
Instructions added on translating featured links for organisation pages in other languages.
Added a link to the Govspeak Markdown converter tool to help publishers convert large digital documents to Govspeak. Also, iterated Markdown table guidance to be clearer that the table generator does not necessarily make accessible tables on its own.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Updated guidance on unpublishing to explain that users will get an email update if a publication, consultation or detailed guide they've subscribed to is unpublished or redirected.
2021
Added instructions on how to add GOV.UK content created outside Whitehall to a document collection.
Deleted:
You can have photos of up to 9 people on your organisation page. Your managing editor can make a request to have more using the [GOV.UK support form.](http://support.production.alphagov.co.uk)
Added bullet to say that titles need to be unique (for accessibility reasons).
Added details of how to add translated versions of social media accounts
Added details of how to add translated versions of social media accounts
New section on how to format CSV files for preview and OpenDocument forms before adding them to GOV.UK as attachments.
Updated section slug from guidance/how-to-publish-on-gov-uk/accessible-pdfs to guidance/how-to-publish-on-gov-uk/document-accessibility
Do not use bold text in address Markdown. Use heading Markdown outside the address Markdown instead, if you need to draw attention.
New section on adding translations to document collections and consultations.
Added a section on how to unpublish statistics announcements as managing editors now have the ability to do this for announcements that were published in error.
2020
Updated the section 'Add topic tagging' with the process for tagging content.
Removed part about not being able to use markdown in table cells - this is possible.
Removed part about using html in links - not necessary as markdown can be used.
Removed part about using
tags within table cells to put values on different lines as this can cause accessibility issues.
Provided an example of a table in which the right column is aligned.
Moved link to table generator to sit with information on creating a table manually.
Added a more descriptive link text signposting users to information on when to use tables and how to make them accessible.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Updated information about the training required to get a GOV.UK publishing account in the 'Request an account' chapter.
Accessibility change to guidance on making videos accessible. More information about closed captions, transcripts and audio descriptions, more examples.
Added heading markdown to table
Changed the title to remove duplicate title issue with new page on publishing accessible documents
Updated with the process for adding translated attachments.
Added instructions about using the 'post-transition call-out box' and the 'transition period' topic tag where appropriate.
Alt text guidance changed: write image descriptions in the body text and leave the 'Alt text' field blank.
Publishing accessible documents
Guidance updated to point to newly published Whitehall guidance on publishing accessible documents.
Added guidance on how to change the number of management people photos that appear on organisation pages.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Removed 'policies' from the list of fields in the export of filtered documents as this no longer exists in Whitehall publisher.
Reviewing and publishing content
Removed mentions of 'policies' and 'policy areas' from the 2i checklist as these features in Whitehall publisher no longer exist.
Removed guidance about adding 'our policies' to organisation pages and selecting 'policy areas' or 'detailed guide categories' under 'Associations' as these are no longer available in Whitehall publisher.
Removed mentions of 'policies' when creating a topical event as this feature no longer exists in Whitehall publisher.
Updated history mode guidance to show which document formats will show history mode when they are tagged to a minister.
Removed references to order URL and price. These fields have been removed from Whitehall publisher.
Detailed guides can now be tagged to topical event pages.
Removed references to 'web ISBN'. Web ISBN has been removed from Whitehall publisher as only one ISBN is required.
Updated authorisation needed to create or modify statistics or statistics release announcements.
2019
Added examples of document types that cannot be scheduled.
Publishing accessible documents
Clarified guidance around checking Microsoft Office documents meet accessibility requirements.
Added information about how to close a group.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Added information about what happens to attachments when unpublishing and withdrawing content.
The markdown for tables has been updated to improve accessibility - you should now add a hash (‘#’) character after the pipe if the cell is the title of a row, for example |# Row 1 | item 1 | item 2 | item 3
Publishing accessible documents
Updated the guidance on publishing accessible documents, including:
+ updating the guidance on keeping the document simple - for example, by avoiding images containing text, using descriptive link text, not using colour or shape to convey meaning
+ linking to guidance that covers how to structure and tag PDFs more accessibly
+ clarifying that PDF/A is an archiving format - and that saving as PDF/A alone will not make a document more accessible
Expanded what can be added to a document collection.
Improving links between guidance pages on publishing images.
Added list of file types you can upload as an attachment
Added information about when it might be appropriate to use a video and how to make videos more accessible.
2018
From 1 January 2019, Command paper numbers will follow this format: ‘CP’ followed by the number, for example ‘CP 57’
Publishing accessible documents
Updated instructions on how to save documents in PDF/A format.
Changed references to ‘high-profile groups’ to ‘sub-organisations’.
Tables should be saved as images and uploaded to a HTML page. Previous guidance said tables should be added as attachments.
Added guidance about how to correctly format CSV files so they can be previewed on GOV.UK in the 'Adding attachments' section.
Added instructions for adding HTML versions of official documents alongside the PDF versions.
Removed guidance about policies and policy areas because they're about to be retired from GOV.UK.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Removed guidance about policies because they're about to be retired from GOV.UK.
Removed guidance about policies because they're about to be retired from GOV.UK.
Publishing accessible documents
Guidance re-written to provide more detail on making non-HTML documents meet the new accessibility requirements for public sector websites and apps.
Added information about publishing accessible diagrams, charts and infographics in the 'Images' section.
Added guidance on how to tag content to topics. Also edited guidance on associations to remove confusion around the term 'topic'.
Removed references to ‘print ISBNs’ in the ‘Official documents’ section
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Added examples of what to put in the 'Public explanation (this is shown on the live site)' box when withdrawing content in Whitehall publisher.
Added detail about analytics measures for choosing news or service-based homepages; linked to guidance about choosing photos; clarified that it's possible to have no featured content
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Updated the 'How to unwithdraw content'. Guidance now explains how to unwithdraw content if an update needs to be made to the content item.
Updated introductory sentences for accuracy - PDFs are often bad for accessibility, but they can be made to meet accessibility standards.
Attachments guidance updated to include list of open standard file formats which should be used.
Added guidance on how to translate organisation pages
Added new section ‘Documents tagged to the new organisation’ in 'Close an organisation’. This explains when to tag existing documents and publications to a new organisation, how to decide what needs to be tagged and how to request a bulk re-tag.
2017
Under 'Edit an existing (published) document', guidance on change notes has been revised to make it clearer when you should leave a change note.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Updated the 'How withdrawing works' section. '[Withdrawn]' is now added automatically to HTML attachments.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Added section about managing your organisation's accounts
Added a section under 'Create a collection' which tells publishers that when they withdrawn item, they need to be sure it's not part of a collection. If it is, then they need to unpublish the page.
Statistics summary length increased from 140 characters to 160.
Added guidance on how (and what) to tag to the new worldwide navigation pages. Also updated the 'world locations' heading, as these pages are now called 'world location news pages'. Added a line explaining what content should go on a worldwide organisation page.
Made it clear that PDFs are bad for accessibility and that content should be created in HTML formats wherever possible. Links have been added to guidance about how to create more accessible PDFs from Word, and the previous instructions have been removed as they were not complete. A link has been added to the Microsoft Office 2016 accessibility checker.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Added guidance on how to unpublish pages that mention convictions.
2016
Added guidance about when to provide Welsh translations
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Removed line saying managing editors could override history mode.
Markdown guidance for tables: a slight restructure and adding:
* information on right alignment
* examples of markdown and html
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Updated 'How withdrawing works' to say that withdrawn content does not appear in internal site search results.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Updated to include changes to training
Removed reference to 'World priority' as the format is no longer available.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Updated information on requesting an account and clarified account permissions.
Added guidance about attachment file names in the 'Adding attachments' section.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Guidance added on unwithdrawing content.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Updated Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher to reflect the change of name of the different publishing environments.
Updated guidance on people on roles to explain when roles should be assigned, what to do if the name or responsibilities of a role changes and when to create interim roles.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Corrected who can unsuspend accounts to GDS.
Reviewing and publishing content
Clarified that only editors or managing editors can edit, publish, schedule or reject a submitted draft. Added that you need to tell them when you've submitted a draft.
Updated guidance on how to tag content to topics, policies and document collections.
Specified what content types can have images.
2015
Removed an incorrect version of 'Edit published documents' section and replaced correct text.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Clarified when Preview is overwritten.
Guidance on how to publish statistics updated.
Changed references to 'topics' to 'policy areas' - where 'topics' referred to the old policy groupings.
Instructions on how to create topical event pages added.
Reviewing and publishing content
Document collections added to the list of content types that take 5 minutes for changes to appear after publication on GOV.UK.
You can now mark documents as important to a policy.
You can now feature policies on organisation home pages.
Collections now take history mode if this is turned on manually for each one.
Unpublishing and withdrawing ('archiving')
Updated to explain that unpublished content will return to a 'draft' state that cannot be discarded.
Changes to reflect the new policy format.
Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
Added instructions for exporting to CSV
Added information on 'history mode'
Added reference to archiving policy
Section on change notes updated.
2014
'Top tasks' and 'Services and features' replaced with 'Choosing your homepage layout' within 'Organisation pages'.
Reviewing and publishing content
Added information on publishing times.
New section added.
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Introduction and access to Whitehall publisher
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Reviewing and approving content
New section added.
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