machined.
  • Basics
    • About
    • Quickstart
    • Who is Machined for?
      • Startups
      • Niche Site Owners
      • SEO Marketing Agencies
    • Change log
      • 2025-04-01: Brand Voice beta
      • 2025-03-24: Bulk Research, Language fixes and more
      • 2025-03-16: Stability AI images
      • 2025-02-22: Improvements and bug fixes
      • 2025-01-14: Reduced costs
      • 2024-12-26: Projects
      • 2024-12-10: Improvements and bug fixes
      • 2024-11-12: Custom Outlines GTM
      • 2024-10-06: Humanizer GTM
      • 2024-09-23: Model updates
      • 2024-09-10: Custom Outlines beta
      • 2024-08-25: UX Improvements
      • 2024-08-17: Humanizer improvements
      • 2024-07-22: GPT-4o-mini
      • 2024-06-12: Humanizer beta
  • Walkthrough
    • Configuring OpenAI API Keys
    • Connecting to WordPress
    • Connecting to Webflow
    • Creating Clusters
      • Auto-Pilot Clusters
      • Manual Clusters
    • Writing Articles
    • Featured Images
    • Publishing
      • Publishing to WordPress
      • Publishing to Webflow
    • Exporting
      • Copy as Rich Text
      • Download as HTML
      • Download as Markdown
      • Download Featured Images
    • Webhooks
    • Research
  • Troubleshooting
    • OpenAI API Key
    • WordPress integration
  • IMAGES
    • Stability AI
    • DALL-E 3
    • Stock Photos
  • Features
    • Experimental Features
    • Clusters
    • Auto-pilot
    • Keyword Metrics
    • Topic
    • Audience
    • Language
    • Length
    • AI Model
    • Perspective
    • Tone of Voice
    • Internal Linking
    • Research
    • Humanizer
    • Custom Outlines
  • SEO Strategy
    • Internal Linking
    • External Linking
    • Topical Authority
    • Content Clusters
    • Long-tail Keywords
    • Keyword Cannibalization
    • Reader Engagement
    • Bounce Rate
Powered by GitBook
On this page
  • What is it?
  • How do I use it?
  • Examples
  • Known issues

Was this helpful?

  1. Features

Custom Outlines

Structure your content, your way

PreviousHumanizerNextInternal Linking

Last updated 4 months ago

Was this helpful?

What is it?

Define a custom outline to control the structure of your article - this will help you dictate the format and length of your content, as well as the direction that the AI will take when writing.

How do I use it?

To open the "Outline Editor" panel for any article, click "Configure" under the Outline column:

The Markdown Editor on the left, allows you to type or paste your outline, while the Preview panel on the right allows you to visualize what the structure of your article will look like:

The Markdown Editor supports only H2, H3 and H4 headings, so you can define hierarchies that are up to 3 levels deep. The editor will ignore all lines that are not markdown headers, so you can safely paste other text into the editor without breaking anything.

When you're done:

  • Clicking "Save" will save the saniitized/cleansed markdown outline and close the popup.

  • Clicking "Cancel" will reset back to the original and close the popup.

Examples

Below is an example of some outlines:

## The Benefits of Off-Leash Walking
### Free Exploration
### Exercise Opportunities 
### Socialization with Other Dogs

## Leash Laws in Ohio
### Regulations in Public Places
### Exceptions to Leash Requirements

## Dog Parks in Ohio
### Bow Wow Beach
### Godown Park
### Deeds Point Dog Park 
## Importance of Stretching
### Why Stretch Your Back?
### Benefits for Athletes

## Warm-Up Routine
### Quick Warm-Up Exercises
### Preparing Your Body

## Recommended Yoga Stretches
### Cat-Cow Pose
### Child’s Pose
### Downward-Facing Dog

## Advanced Yoga Poses
### Two-Knee Spinal Twist
#### Benefits
#### Pro tips
### Extended Puppy Pose
#### Benefits
#### Pro tips
### Happy Baby Pose
#### Benefits
#### Pro tips

## Stretching Techniques
### Proper Form and Alignment
### Breathing Techniques

## When to Seek Help
### Signs You Need a Doctor
### Alternatives to Stretching
## Tips for Choosing the Best Keywords
### 1. Define Your Focus
### 2. Use Keyword Research Tools
### 3. Consider Search Intent
### 4. Analyze the Competition
### 5. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
### 6. Avoid Keyword Stuffing
### 7. Refine Your List Over Time

Machined will generate AI content for each section so the length of the article will differ based on the length of the outline, there's no current way to dictate the length of each section (but a good estimation is that for an average H2 containing 3x H3s, you will generate on average 400 words).

Known issues

Custom Outlines is still an experimental features, below is a list of known issues to be aware of.

Regarding Research

At the moment, Machined will only perform research for the whole article on the topic level, it will not research every heading. This means that there is a chance that you might inadvertently introduce errors and hallucinations into the content by mentioning something that Machined doesn't have context on.

For example, if you write an article about "the best car brands" and one of your headings includes "Lada" - it is likely that the research feature will not have any context that is Lada related.

We're working to update the research feature to include all headings - we'll keep you posted

Regarding Humanizer

The Machined Humanizer is a pretty advanced agent-based post-processing step. When humanizing an article, it might decide to rewrite the headings you provide on your custom outline. The structure and length of the outline should remain the same, but the words used in the headings might be changed.

The Outline Editor allows you to define your outline using syntax.

Pro tip: Pasting any markdown text, including a whole article - will extract the outline

😉
markdown