Write and publish a Journal post

The Journal is your storefront’s blog. This article shows you how to write a post with a cover image in each of your languages, publish it, and later change it, take it down or delete it.

The Journal is on Starter and up. Open it in the sidebar under Storefront: open your Journal (opens in a new tab). The Store owner and the Store manager can write and publish posts.

A new post from start to finish: cover, title, excerpt and body in English, the Arabic filled in, Show on the storefront turned on, then Save.

What the Journal is for

Use it for anything a customer would enjoy reading that is not a product page: styling tips, care guides, a new collection, a visit to your studio. Layal Boutique, for example, writes How to care for linen and knits and What to pack for a weekend in Aqaba.

On your storefront, published posts appear at /journal, newest first, each with its cover, title, excerpt and date. Each post has its own page. The footer’s Help column links to the Journal on every plan that includes it.

In the console, the Journal page shows a summary and a card for each post:

Summary	What it counts
Posts	All your posts.
Published	Posts customers can read now.
Drafts	Posts saved but not shown on the storefront.
Missing a language	Posts not yet written in a language your other posts use. Shown only when there are some.

The Journal page: Posts 5, Published 4, Drafts 1, and cards for Layal’s posts with their covers — Each card shows the cover, the title, Draft or Published, the post’s link, its languages and its date.

Each card shows the title, Published or Draft, the post’s link (for example /journal/visit-our-abdoun-studio), its excerpt, the languages it is written in and Published on with the date. A draft that was published before shows Last published instead. The buttons are Edit, Publish or Unpublish, and the bin to delete.

The whole Journal page with all five of Layal’s posts — Posts are listed newest first.

A store with no posts sees “No posts yet” and the line “Your first post will appear on the storefront the moment you publish it.”, with Add post.

The Journal with no posts: No posts yet and the Add post button — Select Add post to write your first post.

Add a post: title, excerpt, body and cover image

In the sidebar, open Journal.
Select Add post. The post editor opens.

The empty Add post editor: the note about the link, Upload a cover image, the English and Arabic tabs, Title, Excerpt, Body, and Show on the storefront turned off — The editor opens on English if your store sells in English, otherwise Arabic. Title and Body are required.

Select Upload a cover image and choose a photo.
Type the Title.
Type the Excerpt.
Type the Body.
Select Save.

The editor filled in English: a cocoa jumper cover, the title Three ways to wear the cocoa jumper, an excerpt and the body — The dot beside English means that language is written. Translate missing fields shows 3: three fields to fill in Arabic.

You see “Post saved.” and the post appears as a card. A new post is saved as a draft unless you turn on Show on the storefront (see below).

Field	What it is	Required?
Cover image	The photo on the post’s card in the Journal and at the top of the post. JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB. Replace swaps it; the bin (Remove cover) removes it.	No
Title	The post’s headline. It also makes the post’s link.	Yes, in at least one language
Excerpt	One short line that sells the post. It shows under the title in the Journal, as the opening line of the post, and in search results and link previews.	No
Body	The post itself, in plain text. Leave a blank line between paragraphs: each block becomes a paragraph on the storefront.	Yes, in at least one language
Show on the storefront	On: the post is published when you save. Off: it stays a draft.	Off for a new post

If you see “Cover uploaded.” the photo is in. If the photo is refused, the message says why:

Message	What to do
“File type is not allowed.” or “File content type is not allowed.”	The photo is in a format we do not take, such as HEIC from an iPhone. Save it as JPG, PNG or WebP, then pick it again.
A message that includes “Request body too large”	The photo is over 10 MB. Make it smaller, then pick it again.
“This plan has reached its storage limit. Delete some files or upgrade to store more.”	Your store’s storage is full. See Plans and what each includes.
“Could not upload the image. Try again.”	The upload did not go through. Pick the photo again.

If the title or the body is missing in every language, the field shows “Enter a title in at least one language.” or “Enter a body in at least one language.”, with “Fill in every required field.” in the corner.

The editor saved empty: Enter a title in at least one language. under Title and Enter a body in at least one language. under Body — A title and a body in one language are enough to save.

Warning

The editor does not ask before it closes. Selecting Cancel, the X or pressing Esc throws away anything you have not saved.

The post’s link

A new post has no link field. Instead you see: “The link is made from your title when you first save, and then kept — so links you have shared keep working.”

The link is made from the post’s English title, or from its Arabic title if it has no English one, or else its French title: lower-case letters and numbers, with hyphens for spaces, for example /journal/three-ways-to-wear-the-cocoa-jumper. Arabic letters are kept.
Once the post is saved, the link never changes, even if you change the title. Open the post with Edit to see it under Link.
Two posts cannot have the same link. If a new post’s title would make a link another post already has, the save fails with “An article with this slug already exists.”; change the title slightly and save again.

Your other languages, by hand or with AI

The editor has one tab for each language your store sells in. A dot beside a language means its title or body is written. Each tab has its own title, excerpt and body; the cover image is shared.

By hand: select the language’s tab and type its title, excerpt and body.

With AI: write one language first, then select Translate missing fields. The number on the button is how many fields are still empty in your other languages. It fills only the empty ones and never touches text already there. It translates from English if the post has English text, otherwise from Arabic, then French.

The Arabic tab after Translate missing fields: the title, excerpt and body in Arabic, and dots beside both languages — Read the Arabic before you save: AI translation is a starting point, not the final word.

When it is done you see “Missing translations filled.”; “Some translations could not be filled.” means a few fields are still empty, so write them by hand. “Could not fill translations.” means nothing changed; try again later. The button is greyed out when nothing is missing. AI translation uses AI translation credits: one for each field, for each language that field is missing, so a field already written in a language costs nothing there. See How AI credits work. Every plan with the Journal includes AI translation. The button needs a role that can edit settings or the storefront design, which the Store owner and the Store manager both have.

Publish now, or keep it as a draft

Show on the storefront, at the foot of the editor, decides what Save does.

Turn on Show on the storefront.
Select Save.

The post is live on your storefront straight away, at the top of your Journal, and its card shows Published and Published on with today’s date.

The Journal with the new cocoa jumper post published first, Posts 6 and Published 5 — The new post is listed first: posts are listed newest first.

Leave the switch off to save a draft. A draft shows Draft on its card and customers cannot open it, even with its link.

Publish a draft from its card

You do not need to open a finished draft to publish it.

Find the draft’s card.
Select Publish.

The card turns to Published and the post is live. There is no confirmation: if you published by mistake, select Unpublish on the same card.

The Aqaba post published from its card: Published and Published on with today’s date, and Drafts 0 — One click on Publish puts the draft live.

The date shown to customers is the date the post was first published. Publishing it again later keeps that first date.

Posts missing a language

When your posts are written in more than one language and some post is missing one of them, the summary shows Missing a language with a count. Check each card’s Languages row to find it.

Missing a language 1 in the summary, and the Aqaba post with only English in its Languages row — This post has no Arabic yet.

A customer reading your store in the missing language still sees the post, in English if it is written in English, or else in a language it is written in. Open the post with Edit, select the missing language’s tab and write it, or use Translate missing fields, then save.

Edit a published post

Select Edit on the post’s card. The Edit post editor opens, with the post’s Link at the top.
Change what you need, in any language.
Select Save.

The Edit post editor for Come and see us in Abdoun: its link, cover, title, excerpt, three-paragraph body, and Show on the storefront on — Changes to a published post are live as soon as you save. The link stays the same.

To take the post down while you edit it, turn off Show on the storefront before saving.

Take a post off the storefront

Select Unpublish on the post’s card.
Read the confirmation and select Unpublish.

The confirmation: Take this post off your storefront? It stays here as a draft. Its link stops working until you publish it again, so any link already shared will break. — Unpublishing keeps the post; only customers lose it.

The post becomes a draft and its card shows Last published with the old date.

The Abdoun post back to Draft with Last published Sep 29, 2026, and Drafts 2 — Select Publish on the card to put it back. Its first publish date is kept.

Note

While a post is a draft, its link shows customers that the post is not available. Links you shared on WhatsApp or Instagram work again as soon as you publish it again.

Delete a post

Select the bin on the post’s card.
Read the confirmation and select Delete.

The confirmation: Delete this post? The post and its link are removed from your storefront. — Deleting removes the post in every language, for good.

The card disappears. A deleted post cannot be brought back, and its link stops working for good. To hide a post for a while, unpublish it instead.

On plans without the Journal

The Journal is included on Starter, Growth, Business and Enterprise. On Free, the Journal page shows a lock instead of your posts:

The journal is on a higher plan, with the line “Your posts are kept, off your storefront. Move up a plan and they come back as they were.”
See plans under it, and a padlock on Add post at the top of the page.

The Journal on the Free plan: The journal is on a higher plan, Your posts are kept, off your storefront, the See plans button, and Add post with a padlock — On Free your posts are kept, but neither you nor your customers see them.

Selecting See plans or Add post shows a message naming the plan that includes the Journal and its price, “This is on Starter — $19/month.”, with a See plans link to your Subscription page.

The Journal lock after See plans: the message This is on Starter — $19/month, with See plans — The message names the lowest plan that includes the Journal.

What happens to posts you wrote on a higher plan:

On your storefront, the Journal and every post page stop showing, and the footer no longer links to the Journal.
In the console, you cannot open, edit, publish or delete them while you are on Free.
Nothing is deleted. Move back up to Starter or higher and every post returns exactly as it was, published ones live again and drafts still drafts.

See Plans and what each includes and Upgrade or change your plan.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
“Could not save the post. Try again.”	Select Save again.
“An article with this slug already exists.”	Another post already has the link this title makes. Change the title slightly, then save.
A cover refused	See the cover messages under Add a post.
“Could not load your posts.” with Try again	The list did not load. Your posts and your storefront are not affected. Select Try again; if it keeps failing, check your connection and reload.
“You do not have permission to do this.”	Your role cannot open the Journal, as with Sales staff, whose sidebar has no Journal: the page was opened from a link. Ask the Store owner to change your role: see Staff roles: what each one can see and do.
The journal is on a higher plan	Your store is on Free. See On plans without the Journal.
“Enter a title in at least one language.” / “Enter a body in at least one language.”	Fill the title and the body in at least one language.

The Journal page with Could not load your posts. and Try again — Nothing is lost: select Try again.

What to do next

Write the rest of your storefront’s words: Write your storefront text.
Learn how AI credits are counted: How AI credits work.