How To Edit And Delete WordPress Pages

Learn how to edit and delete WordPress pages in this step-by-step tutorial.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

  • How to edit and delete individual and multiple pages in WordPress,
  • How to use the features of the WordPress Table of Pages to perform bulk page edits and deletions, and
  • Useful and time-saving tips when using and editing pages.

Notes:

How To Edit Single Pages In WordPress

To edit a page in WordPress, log into your site’s admin area, and select Pages > All Pages from the main WordPress menu.

Pages - All Pages menu.
Pages – All Pages menu.

This brings up the ‘Pages’ screen, which displays a table of all the pages you have added to your site.

This table includes:

  • Pages that have already been published,
  • Pages that are scheduled for publishing,
  • Draft pages (not yet published), and
  • Pages pending review (pages that need to be approved by an administrator before being published).
WordPress Table of Pages.
WordPress Table of Pages.

Note: All the features of the Table of Pages are explained in the next section below.

In the ‘Pages’ screen, find the Page you want to edit, then either click on the title or hover your mouse over the page title to display the options menu and click on Edit.

Edit Page menu link.
Edit Page menu link.

The page you have selected will open up in the Edit Page screen.

The Edit Page screen.
The Edit Page screen.

The screenshot above shows the more common areas of a WordPress page that you will typically want to edit:

  1. Page Title – Change the title of your page here.
  2. Permalink – Change the page slug here (this affects the URL of your page).
  3. Content Area – Edit your page content here. You can add, edit or delete text, insert and delete images, videos, and other media, etc. using the Visual Editor and/or the Text Editor.

After saving your changes, you can view your edited page by clicking on the “Page published. View page” link [1].

Edit Page screen - View Page options.
WordPress provides different options to view your Pages.

Note: You can also view your page while working in the Edit Page screen by clicking on the View Page link in the Admin toolbar [2] and previewing any changes you make by clicking on the Preview Changes button in the ‘Publish’ box [3].

WordPress Table of Pages

The table of pages lists all your pages.

Example of pages listed in the WordPress Table of Pages.
Example of pages listed in the WordPress Table of Pages.

Let’s go through the main features of the Table of Pages:

Pages can be selected for bulk editing or processing by clicking on the checkbox next to each page.

Select pages for bulk editing by ticking their checkboxes.
Select pages for bulk editing by ticking their checkboxes.

Title Column – The Title of each Page is displayed as a clickable link. Clicking on the Title link lets you edit the Page.

Note: Hovering your mouse over the page title also lets you edit the page and see other page options.

Page options menu.
Hover over a page to view its options menu.

A bold text next to the Page Title will display if your Page has been saved as a Draft, Private, Pending Review, or Password Protected page.

WordPress Table of Pages - Page status.
Page status.

Author – The Page author is displayed in the Author column. If your site has multiple authors, then clicking on an author name will display all pages authored by that user in the Table of Pages.

WordPress Table of Pages - Page Author column.
Page Author column.

Comments – The column with the “comment bubble” displays the number of comments for each page. If any pages have comments, the number of comments will be displayed in the comment bubble for that page.

You can view page comments by clicking on the comment bubble.

WordPress Table of Pages - Page comments column.
Page comments column.

Note: Clicking on the comment bubble brings up the Comments screen, allowing you to moderate comments (learn more here: How To Manage Comments In WordPress).

WordPress comments example.
Click on the comments bubble in the Table of Pages to view comments left on your pages.

Date – The Date column for each Page shows the Published Date for published pages, the Last Modified Date for unpublished pages (e.g. Draft Pages), and the Scheduled Date for pages set for publishing at a later date.

WordPress Table of Pages - Date column.
Date column.

Now that you know how to edit a WordPress page, the next step is to complete the step-by-step tutorial below to learn how to delete your WordPress pages.

How To Delete Individual Pages In WordPress

To delete a page in WordPress, select Pages > All Pages.

Pages - All Pages menu.
Pages – All Pages menu.

This brings up the ‘Pages’ screen and displays your Table of Pages.

The WordPress Table of Pages.
The WordPress Table of Pages.

In the ‘Pages’ screen, locate the page you want to delete, then hover over the page title to display the options menu and click on Trash.

WordPress Table of Pages - Trash menu link.
Click on the Trash menu link to delete a page.

Your Page will be moved to the Trash [See (1) below].

Note: You can restore a page to the Table of Pages by clicking on the Undo link [See (2) below] immediately after being sent to the trash.

Undo page moved to trash.
You can undo trashed pages.

To permanently delete a page, click on the Trash link.

Pages - Trash menu link.
Click on the Trash menu link to view trashed items.

The contents of the trash will display in the Table of Pages.

Hover over the title of the page you want to permanently delete, and click on either the ‘Restore’ link to restore the page to the Table of Pages, or click the ‘Delete Permanently’ link to permanently delete the page.

Trashed Pages - Delete Permanently link.
Click Delete Permanently link to delete trashed pages.

You can also permanently delete pages by clicking on the Empty Trash button.

Trashed Pages - Empty Trash button.
Click on the Empty Trash button to permanently erase trashed pages.

Your page will be permanently deleted.

Page permanently deleted message.
Page permanently deleted message.

WordPress Pages – Filtering Options

WordPress offers a number of options to filter and display selected Pages.

Above the Table of Pages, you will see links (e.g. All, Published, Scheduled, Draft, Pending, PrivateTrash, etc.) displayed with the number of pages assigned to each status.

Click on any of these links to display only the pages assigned to that status.

Page menu links.
Page menu links.

Note: If no pages are assigned a status, the menu link for that status will not display.

Below this section, next to the Bulk Actions dropdown menu and Apply button, are two additional Filtering options:

Show all dates

Use this dropdown menu and then click the Filter button to select and display pages by date.

Table of Pages - Filter Pages by date function.
Use the Filter Pages by date function to view pages published within a specific period.

By default, “Show all dates” is selected and all of your pages are displayed.

Search Pages

You can also use the Search Pages function inside your ‘Pages’ screen to filter and display only the pages that contain the search words you have entered into the search field.

Table of Pages - Search Pages function.
If your site has lots of pages, use the Search Pages function to easily find a page.

To remove the search filter and view all pages again, click on the All link at the top of your page screen.

Restore all pages by removing search filtering options.
Restore all pages by removing search filtering options.

How To Bulk Edit And Delete Pages In WordPress

WordPress also allows you to edit and delete multiple WordPress pages. This is useful if you are performing WordPress management or bulk administration tasks such as removing old or unwanted pages, or if you would like to make bulk changes to specific sections of multiple WordPress pages.

Select the pages that you would like to bulk edit or delete from the Table of Pages. You can select one page at a time by clicking on its checkbox or select all pages at once by clicking on the main checkbox in the Table of Pages column heading.

Select the Title column checkbox to select all pages.
Select the Title column checkbox to select all pages.

Once you have selected your pages, choose either Edit or Move to Trash from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu and click the Apply button to begin processing your selection.

Table of Pages - Bulk Actions dropdown menu.
the Bulk Actions dropdown menu lets you bulk edit pages.

How To Bulk Edit Pages In WordPress

Select Edit from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu [2] …

Table of Pages - Bulk Actions dropdown menu - Edit
Select Bulk Actions – ‘Edit’ to bulk edit pages.

Then select the pages you want to edit [1] and click on the Apply button [3] to bring up a number of Bulk Edit options in the WordPress Quick Editor and display these below the Column headings section.

WordPress Quick Editor
Use the WordPress Quick Editor to make bulk changes to multiple pages.

The ‘Bulk Edit’ screen allows you to bulk edit the following fields for all selected pages:

  • Author – Use the dropdown menu to change the Author for all selected pages.
  • Parent – Use the dropdown menu to select a new Parent Page for your selected pages.
  • Template – Use the dropdown menu to select a new template for your pages
  • Comments – Use the dropdown menu to allow / not allow comments for all selected Pages.
  • Status – Use the dropdown menu to change the status of all selected pages to Published, Private, Pending Review, or Draft.

Click the Cancel button to cancel and exit the Bulk Edit screen, or click Update after making changes to save your new page settings.

WordPress Quick Editor - Cancel and Save bulk edits buttons.
WordPress Quick Editor – Cancel and Save bulk editing buttons.

How To Bulk Delete Pages In WordPress

Select Move to Trash in the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu [2] …

Select Bulk Actions - 'Move to Trash' to bulk delete pages.
Select Bulk Actions – ‘Move to Trash’ to bulk delete pages.

Your pages will be moved to the trash after selecting your pages to be deleted [1] and clicking the Apply button [3].

Note: Pages can be restored immediately after sending them to the trash by clicking on the Undo link [see (1) below].

Undo pages moved to the trash.
WordPress lets you undo your trashed pages.

To permanently delete your pages, click on the Trash link [see (2) above or refer to the screenshot below].

WordPress Table of Pages - Trash menu link
Click the Trash menu link to view your deleted pages.

The contents of the trash will display on your screen.

Select the page(s) you want to permanently delete by ticking the checkboxes next to their page title, then using the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, select either the Restore options to restore your pages or the Delete Permanently link to completely delete all selected pages.

WordPress Table of Pages - Bulk Actions menu and Apply button.
Select an option from the Bulk Actions menu and click the Apply button to perform the task.

If you select Restore from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, your pages will be restored from the trash.

'Pages restored from the trash' notification message.
WordPress displays a notification message confirming the number of pages you have restored.

If you select Delete Permanently from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu, your pages will be permanently deleted.

'Pages permanently deleted' notification message.
WordPress displays a notification message confirming the number of pages you have deleted.

Editing And Deleting  Pages In WordPress – Useful Tips

Tip #1: You can access the Pages screen from your dashboard by clicking on Pages inside the ‘Right Now’ box.

Dashboard - At a Glance panel: Pages link
Dashboard – ‘At a Glance’ panel: Pages link

Tip #2: You can set the number of pages to display in the Pages screen by clicking on the Screen Options tab at the top of the page, then entering a number of pages to display in the Pages field and clicking the Apply button.

Pages Screen Options tab - Set the number of items to display per page.
Set the number of pages to display in your Pages screen in the Pages Screen Options tab.

Tip #3: The Screen Options area also allows you to display or hide certain features in the Pages screen.

Pages Screen Options.
Display or hide page options in the Pages Screen Options tab.

And in the Edit Page screen when editing a single page.

Edit Page screen options.
Display or hide page options in the Edit Page Screen Options tab.

Congratulations! Now you know how to edit and delete pages in WordPress.

WordPress Edit Page screen.
WordPress Edit Page screen.

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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum

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