Medium for Beginners

All the Tips and Tricks

Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation.

To create an account

Go to medium.com and click Sign In / Sign Up. You can sign in or sign up through Twitter, Facebook, Google, or with your email.

To write a Story/Article

• Go to medium.com
• Click on your profile picture, which will be at right side top corner
• Click on New story
• That’s it, start writing your story.

Title of the Article
Enter a title, and subtitle (optional). If you don’t enter a title, the first few words of your post will be used instead. Similarly, for the subtitle.

Text Formatting
To add some basic formatting to your story, highlight/select a word or phrase. This will bring up a text toolbar with available options, such as bold, italic, hyperlink, font-size, quote, private notes.

private notes can only be viewed by the author of the particular story

You can also add a code block by typing ``` (three backticks) on a new line, or create an inline bit of code by typing a single backtick at the beginning and end of the code. (Or select the text, and type a single backtick).

Inserting Images
To insert an image, go to a new line (press enter).

• A “+” sign will appear to the left.
• Click on the “camera” icon:

You can also drag and drop single or multiple images into Medium posts or copy/paste single images into a post.

Depending on the size of your image, you’ll be able to test out different placement options from the toolbar.

Embeds

To embed a URL into a Medium post,

Go to a new line > paste the URL > press Enter.

If a rich version of the embed is supported, it will be rendered automatically, or else it will become a simple embedded link in a box.

Medium also supports third-party embeds from third-party sites, such as

Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, Vine, Kickstarter, SoundCloud, Instagram, Rd.io, Github, Gists

Publish the Story/Article

When you’re finished with the writing,

click Publish > add tags (optional) > click Publish again

Keyboard shortcuts for Medium on Windows:

ctrl + alt + 1 → Turns a text block into Heading
ctrl + alt + 2→ Turns a text block into subheading
ctrl + alt + 5 → Press once for block quote, again for a pull quote
ctrl + alt + 6 → Turns a text block into / starts a new Code style
ctrl + alt + 8 → To change an image into a featured image
* + space → Creates an unordered list
1 + . + space → Creates an ordered list
ctrl + ? → Opens a shortcut display

note: select the text which you want to manipulate, before using the following shortcuts

ctrl + B → Turns selected text into bold style
ctrl + K → Adds a new link
ctrl + I → Turns selected text into italic style

A Featured Image is important, because when you share your story, it will be displayed along with the heading and subheading.

Do you have any other trick, please comment below.