Authors

In Publii the name you enter as the owner of the website will be saved as an author, and more authors can be added as needed. Every new post on your site must be attributed to an author, and each post's page may include an author section that provides some basic information on the writer. If your theme supports author pages, users can also visit an Author Page that is generated by Publii, where they can read the bio and see a list of posts by the selected author.

The author that is created during the initial website setup is set as the Main Author, meaning that it cannot be deleted. However, the main author's details can be edited at any time. You may also add, remove, or modify new authors as needed. To do so, click on the Authors option in the left-sidebar. You'll be taken to the Authors page.

Creating a new author

To create a new author, in the Authors screen, click on the Add new author button. The Add new author sidebar will appear on the right, with the following options available:

Basic Information

This section of the options covers the core information about the author. How this information is displayed on your site depends on your theme.

Name - Sets the name of the author.
Description - Tell your readers a little bit about the author; your theme may display the description in the author info section of posts and on the author page so people know who's writing for them!
Email - Adds an email address for the author, which your theme may display as a contact link. This address is also used if you enable Gravatar.
Website - Adds a link to the author's website or blog.

Avatar and Featured Image

In this section you can set the avatar for the author that can appear on posts that they write, and change the featured image that can optionally be displayed on the author's page. The display of these images, captions and credits depends on your theme.

Avatar - Here you can upload a picture of the author for use with the author information on posts and on the author page. Just drag and drop the photo onto the box, or click on the Choose file button to browse your computer for a photo.
Use Gravatar - If you've got a Gravatar attached to the author's email address, you can enable this option to use it as the author picture. Enter the email address in Basic Information first. When Gravatar is enabled, visitors' browsers load the avatar from Gravatar's servers.
Featured Image - The featured image can appear at the top of the author page if your theme supports it. To add a featured image to your author you can either drag and drop an image onto the Featured Image box, or click on the Choose file button to open a file explorer window to select a photo from your computer.
Alternative Text - This option is only available if you have set a featured image. Here, you can add text that will be displayed if the image cannot load, or read by a screen-reader used by visually-impaired users to describe the photo.
Caption - Another featured-image-only option, text added here will be added as a caption under the photo.
Credits - A name or other text added here will appear as a credit, letting people know who took the picture or owns the copyright if it is not your own.

SEO

This section covers options related to Search Engine Optimisation, including the author page's title and metadata, and instructions for search engines.

Slug - Sets the URL-friendly name of the author page; for example, an author called John Smith may use john-smith, without capital letters, unsupported symbols or spaces. The slug is used to create URLs and links to the author page. If no slug is defined, it will be created automatically from the author's name.
Page Title - Sets a custom title for the author's page, which search engines may display in search results. Leave this field blank to use the default title. This option is available regardless of whether indexing is enabled.
Meta Description - Sets the meta description for the author page, which search engines may use to provide a summary of the page in search listings. Leave this field blank to use the default description. This option is also available regardless of whether indexing is enabled.
Meta Robots Index - Provides instructions to search engine robots. Index/Noindex specifies whether the page should be indexed; Follow/Nofollow specifies whether links on the page should be followed. You can also leave this option set to use the site's global settings.
Canonical URL - Sets the preferred URL for the page. If left blank, the default author page URL will be used. If you enter a custom canonical URL, Publii ignores the author page's meta robots setting.

Other Options

This section covers options that don't relate to the other areas previously covered. The available options depend on your theme.

Custom Template - If the currently-used theme includes several author page templates to change the style or layout, you will find them in this section. Select the desired template from the drop-down list.

Once this basic information is entered you can click the Add new author button to save your new author.

Deleting an author

As with posts and tags, to delete an author simply click on the checkbox next to the author(s) you wish to delete. A Delete button will appear at the top of the author list; click this, then click Delete author or Delete authors on the confirmation popup to confirm deletion. Note that it is not possible to delete the main author (the author created when first setting up the website).

Bob Mitro and Joachim Batten selected in the Authors list, with the Delete action above their rows. — Select the authors you want to remove, then click Delete and confirm.

Deleting an author does not delete their posts or pages; these are reassigned to the main author. The author deletion cannot be undone.

You can also delete an individual author by opening the actions menu at the right of their row and choosing Delete.

Modifying an author

To change the name, description, or any other aspect of the author's options, simply click on the author you wish to modify on the Authors screen; the options for the selected author will appear in the right sidebar and you can make your changes. Don't forget to click Save changes once you're done! It's possible to modify all authors via this method, including the main author.

For an existing author, you can also use Save and preview if your theme supports author pages.

Finding an Author

If you have a lot of authors on your site, it may be troublesome to find a specific one in the author list. By clicking on the column headers (e.g. Posts, ID etc.) you can sort your author list to make it easier to find what you're looking for. Alternatively, clicking on the magnifying glass icon next to the Authors title at the top of the page will open the dynamic search bar; start typing the author's name in this field and the list will be instantly filtered.