Installation & Setup

Veridis News Desk Free 1.0 installs as a standard WordPress plugin. It operates entirely within your existing WordPress environment and connects immediately with your published and draft content without complex setup steps.

System requirements

Before activating Veridis News Desk, confirm that your hosting environment meets these minimum specifications:

• WordPress: Version 6.5 or higher
• PHP: Version 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.1+ recommended)
• Browser: Modern desktop or tablet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)

News Desk works with your existing WordPress site. No separate service or content migration is required.

Installing the plugin

You can install Veridis News Desk using either of the standard WordPress plugin installation workflows:

Method 1: WordPress Admin Upload

1. Download the veridis-news-desk.zip package provided by Veridis.
2. In your WordPress administration dashboard, navigate to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
3. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page.
4. Select the downloaded ZIP file and click Install Now.
5. Once uploaded, click Activate Plugin.

Method 2: Manual Directory Installation

1. Extract the veridis-news-desk.zip archive on your local computer.
2. Upload the extracted veridis-news-desk folder to your server’s /wp-content/plugins/ directory using SFTP or your hosting file manager.
3. In WordPress admin, navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
4. Locate Veridis News Desk in the list and click Activate.

Locating News Desk in WordPress

Upon activation, a new primary menu item titled Veridis News appears in your WordPress administration sidebar (positioned right after the native Posts menu).

Clicking Veridis News opens the News Desk application. No multi-step configuration wizard is required. News Desk immediately reads your WordPress posts and editorial metadata, loading your newsroom dashboard on first open.

Existing content works automatically

Existing WordPress posts, categories, tags, author accounts, and featured media continue to function normally. You do not need to migrate content or reformat existing posts. Existing posts are available in News Desk after activation.

Suggested first-run checklist

To verify your installation and begin editorial operations:

1. Activate the plugin: Confirm activation completes without warnings or fatal errors.
2. Open Veridis News: Click the Veridis News menu to check that the Dashboard interface loads.
3. Verify editorial users: Confirm that your staff members are registered with appropriate WordPress user roles. By default, users with the Administrator or Editor role can open and manage News Desk.
4. Open the Newsroom: Navigate to the Newsroom tab to review your existing articles in the List view.
5. Create or assign your first story: Click New Story to create a test idea or assign an existing draft to a writer.
6. Explore List and Board: Switch between the List and Board views to test drag-and-drop workflow transitions and filters.

User access and assignability

News Desk relies on native WordPress user permissions rather than maintaining a separate user system:

• News Desk Operators: Editors and Administrators normally have full access to the News Desk workspace, newsroom overview, settings, and follow-ups.
• Assignable Users: Users who can edit WordPress posts can normally be assigned stories or credited as authors, even if they do not have access to the full News Desk workspace.

For full details on user permissions and data retention, see Roles, Permissions & Data.