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Quickstart

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This walk-through takes about fifteen minutes. You’ll install the desktop app, create a publication, take a piece of writing through review, and put together a test issue. Everything stays on your computer, so you can experiment freely.

1. Install QuillSail#

On macOS or Linux, run this in a terminal:

Shell
curl -fsSL https://quillsail.blog/install.sh | bash

On Windows, run this in PowerShell:

PowerShell
irm https://quillsail.blog/install.ps1 | iex

The installer downloads the app for your computer, checks it against QuillSail’s signed release list, and adds a quillsail command. Prefer not to use a terminal? Download the app instead. Terminal installer explains each step it takes.

2. Create your publication#

Open QuillSail from your Applications folder, Start menu or app menu, or run quillsail. The launcher starts a private publication and opens a short setup form in your browser:

  1. Publication name: what readers will see, such as The Tech Stack. You can change it later.
  2. Publication type: Newsletter, Blog, or Blog + newsletter. Pick Blog + newsletter to try everything.
  3. Your account: your name, email address and a password of at least 10 characters. This first account is the administrator.

Choose Create my account and finish. You’re signed in to the dashboard.

3. Make it yours#

From the dashboard, take a quick tour:

  • Settings → General: set the tagline, the organization that publishes it, a contact email and your time zone.
  • Settings → Appearance: pick one of five starting styles, upload a logo, and preview the website and email before saving.
  • Pages: edit the starter About, Writing guidelines and Privacy pages.
  • Groups and permissions: look at the starter reader groups (Students, Staff and Alumni). Rename them or make your own.

4. Take a piece through review#

This is what your writers will do, from both sides:

  1. On the public site, choose Write for us, then start a new piece. Give it a title and a few paragraphs of Markdown, and choose Submit for review.
  2. In the dashboard, open Articles. Your piece is waiting. Open it and choose Start review.
  3. Leave a comment for the writer, or try Request changes, which asks you to explain what should change. Then choose Accept, and finally Publish now.
  4. Open the public site. The piece is live, with its byline, in the archive and in the feed.

Each step was emailed to the people involved. On the desktop, email is saved as files instead of being sent; see step 6.

5. Put together an issue#

  1. In the dashboard, open Issues and create a new issue.
  2. Add your published article, then add a heading and a text block.
  3. Aim the text block at Alumni only. Under Show the version for, compare what alumni and everyone else will get.
  4. Choose Send a test and enter your own address.

Don’t send it to subscribers yet: you don’t have any, and there’s no real sender connected.

6. Connect email when you’re ready#

Until you connect a sender, the desktop app saves each message as an .eml file in your publication’s data folder. Choose Open data folder in the launcher to find them; most mail apps can open these files.

When you’re ready to deliver real mail, open Settings → Email and connect Gmail, Outlook, or an SMTP server. See Gmail, Outlook and SMTP.

Next steps#