Editorial conventions

Meridian uses a small set of internal tags and Ghost's native Featured flag to change how posts render. None of these affect what readers see in tag archives — internal tags (those whose name starts with #) are Ghost-internal by convention and don't appear on public tag pages.

This page is the single reference for every Meridian-specific tag. If a feature page elsewhere in the docs mentions a #tag, the full behaviour is documented here.

Article-level tags

These tags change how an individual article renders.

Drop cap

#dropcap

Posts and pages tagged #dropcap get a drop cap on their first paragraph — an enlarged decorative first letter that spans three text lines on desktop and two on mobile (in browsers without initial-letter support, a floated cap at 4.9em desktop / 3.3em mobile). Content without the tag renders normally; there's no site-wide toggle.

Video hero

#video

Tag a post with #video to turn it into a video post. Meridian hoists the first uploaded video card (Ghost video card), YouTube embed, or Vimeo embed found in the post body into the hero slot above the headline, replacing the feature image. Visitors see the feature image as a poster with a large play button overlay; clicking starts playback inline.

If the visitor scrolls past the playing video, a small dismissible mini-player docks in the corner so they can keep watching while they read — and, with the persistent player on (the default), it keeps playing as they move to other pages on your site. See Persistent video player for the full behaviour and settings.

Setup

Supported sources

• Uploaded Ghost video (.mp4, .webm, .ogg).
• YouTube (youtube.com, youtu.be, youtube-nocookie.com).
• Vimeo (vimeo.com, player.vimeo.com, including channel and group URLs).

Twitch, Wistia, Loom, and other providers keep their default responsive embed in the body. They don't hoist.

Fallback behaviour

If you tag a post #video but the body contains no uploaded video, YouTube embed, or Vimeo embed, Meridian falls back to the normal feature-image hero. There's no broken state and authors see a single console warning during preview.

Reduced motion

Visitors with prefers-reduced-motion: reduce see no slide-in animation on the mini-player and no hover transition on the play button. Playback always requires a click — the video never autoplays.

Table of contents

#toc

Tag a post with #toc to surface an "In this story" list above the article body — a newspaper-style insert that auto-builds itself from the post's section headings, so readers can scan the structure before diving in. Off by default; opt in per post.

What ends up in the list

• The post's top-level H2 headings become the numbered entries.
• H3 headings appear as indented sub-entries under the preceding H2.
• Headings nested inside callouts, toggles, or other cards are skipped — only direct section headings count.
• If the post has fewer than two qualifying headings, the list silently hides itself: no empty insert, no broken state.

Reader behaviour

• On screens ≥ 1024 px the list starts open. On phones it starts collapsed so the headline still leads — readers tap the chevron to expand it.
• Tapping an entry smooth-scrolls to that heading, offset for the sticky article bar so the section title isn't hidden under the chrome.
• As the reader scrolls, the entry for the section currently in view highlights — a lightweight progress cue.
• Visitors with prefers-reduced-motion: reduce get instant jumps instead of smooth scrolls. Print and the email newsletter never include the list.

Setup

Post Hero layouts

#hero-split-left
#hero-split-right
#hero-slideshow

By default a post opens with the centered headline above a wide 16:9 feature image. Three internal tags swap in a different opening for the genres that need it. Each is opt-in per post, and each falls back to the default centered hero if the post has no feature image — there's no broken state.

Split duo

A magazine-style opening: the headline, dek, and byline sit beside a square feature image. Use it for profiles and single-subject features where one person or place is the story. #hero-split-right places the image on the right, #hero-split-left on the left. On phones both stack the same way — headline first, image below — so the reading order never changes.

Setup

Slideshow carousel

A manual, photo-desk slideshow for visual stories where sequence matters — a developing event, a then-and-now reel, a step-by-step. The feature image is the first slide, followed by the images from the post's first gallery card. Readers move through it with the arrows, the dots, the keyboard (← / →), or a swipe; tapping a photo opens it full-screen in the lightbox. There is no autoplay — nothing moves until the reader asks it to.

Setup

Accessibility & reduced motion

The slideshow is a labelled carousel: arrows and dots are real buttons with clear labels, the current slide is announced to screen readers, and every control is keyboard-reachable. Visitors with prefers-reduced-motion: reduce get instant slide changes with no sliding animation. In print, only the first slide (the feature image) is shown.

Breaking news

#breaking

Tag any post #breaking and two things happen: its headline joins the breaking-news ticker at the very top of every page, and the post itself gets a Breaking badge on its hero and in every feed card (with the primary-tag eyebrow in your accent colour).

The ticker is a slim dark bar above the masthead — a pulsing dot, a Breaking label, and a horizontally scrolling marquee of the latest #breaking headlines, with a live clock (desktop) in your site's timezone. It's controlled by the Enable breaking ticker site-wide setting (on by default) and hides completely when no published post is tagged #breaking.

Reader behaviour

• Each headline links to its post. Up to 8 of the most recent #breaking posts scroll, newest first.
• The marquee pauses on hover, on keyboard focus, and via the play/pause button on the bar — so readers can stop it to click a headline.
• A pin button lets the reader stick the bar to the top of the page while they scroll, or leave it to scroll away with the content. The bar scrolls away by default; a reader who pins it has that choice remembered per device. (Want it stuck for everyone instead? See Make the ticker sticky by default below.)
• Visitors with prefers-reduced-motion: reduce get no auto-scroll: the headlines become a manually scrollable strip and the pulsing dot is stilled.
• The clock ticks live in your site's timezone (Settings → General) and is hidden on mobile to save space.

Setup

Make the ticker sticky by default

The ticker scrolls away with the page by default, and each reader can pin it from the bar. If you'd rather it stay stuck to the top for everyone unless a reader chooses otherwise, paste this into Settings → Code injection → Site Header and click Save:

<script>window.meridianTicker = { stickyDefault: true };</script>

This flips the default only — a reader who unpins the bar still has that choice remembered on their own device. Remove the snippet to go back to the scroll-away default.

The on/off switch and its behaviour are also covered in Site wide settings → Enable breaking ticker.

Homepage section tags

Nine tags pick the layout for a homepage section row. Crucially, they go on a Ghost page (a "recipe page"), not on individual posts. The page's primary public tag is what selects the posts that fill the row — its layout is whichever #home-* tag you attach.

A tenth tag, #home-ad, slots an advertisement row into the same band — same recipe-page mechanics, but the page body renders as an ad instead of a posts query. See Ads.

Row order on the homepage follows the recipe page's publish date, newest first. See Homepage sections for the page-creation walkthrough and Section layouts for the full anatomy of each layout.

Footer legal links

Meridian renders a small dot-separated row of legal / utility links under the footer's social icons — Privacy, Terms, Imprint, Cookie policy, anything you need to surface for compliance without cluttering primary navigation. The row is driven by Ghost pages tagged with the internal #footer-legal-link tag.

How it works

• Every Ghost page tagged #footer-legal-link becomes one link in the row.
• The page title is the link text; the page URL is the destination.
• Links render in publish-date order, newest first, separated by a · dot character (text-ink-faint, aria-hidden="true" — pure visual rule, not announced by screen readers).
• The row wraps to multiple lines on narrow viewports and self-removes when no #footer-legal-link pages exist.

Adding a legal link

The Featured flag

Ghost has a built-in Featured flag on every post (toggle in the Post Settings panel — not a tag). Meridian uses this flag to populate the Editor's Picks strip on the homepage.

• Up to 8 featured posts appear in the strip, newest-first.
• The strip silently disappears when no posts are featured.

See Editor's Picks for the full workflow.

Visibility & paywall

Meridian honours every Ghost visibility tier. The post hero always displays a "visibility chip" so readers know upfront whether they need to be logged in or paying — public stories included. (Feed cards behave differently: their small visibility badge is hidden on public posts, so feeds only flag the stories that are gated.)

The Member CTA at the end of an article invites logged-out readers to sign up — but only on stories they can open in full. On members-only stories the paywall already shows the signup-or-upgrade path, so the box stays hidden rather than doubling up; signed-in readers on accessible stories see nothing.

For the post-page CTA copy: see Site wide settings.

For the homepage Membership CTA band: see Membership CTA.