How To Edit And Delete WordPress Posts

*** Important ***

WordPress introduced a new content editor in version 5.0 called Gutenberg.

For tutorials on how to use the new Gutenberg content editor, go here:

• WordPress Gutenberg Tutorials For Non-Techies

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In other articles and tutorials, we look at the difference between a Post and a Page and show you how to create a new post in WordPress.

WordPress makes editing content and deleting posts quite simple.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to edit and delete an individual WordPress post. This tutorial also explains to use the WordPress Table of Posts for performing single and bulk edits and post deletions and includes additional tips that will help you save time using WordPress.

This tutorial covers the following:

• The Table Of Posts Explained
  • WordPress Table of Posts – Screen Options
  • Table Of Posts – Sorting And Filtering
• Editing WordPress Posts
  • Editing Individual Posts
  • Editing Multiple Posts In WordPress
• How To Delete WordPress Posts
  • How To Delete Single Posts
  • How To Delete Bulk Posts
• Editing And Deleting WordPress Posts – Useful Tips And Information

WordPress Posts Panel

Log into the Dashboard and choose Posts > All Posts …

(Posts – All Posts)

This brings you to the WordPress Posts section …

(Posts panel)

Here you can add, edit, and delete posts …

(Add, edit, and delete posts in the Posts area)

We have written a detailed tutorial on creating new WordPress posts here: Creating A New WP Post

WordPress Table Of Posts – Features

The Table of Posts displays your published posts, scheduled posts, sticky posts, private posts, draft posts (posts that have not been published yet), and pending posts (posts that need to be approved by an editor or administrator before being published).

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

The Table of Posts displays a list of all posts on your posts on your web site or blog with your newest posts listed at the top …

(Post dates column)

Multiple posts can be selected for performing bulk processes like editing or deletion by selecting the check box next to each post title (see Part Two of this tutorial for more details about bulk editing posts) …

(Select checkboxes in the Posts Title column to bulk edit posts)

Table Of Posts – Column Sections

Title Column

Each post title is displayed as a clickable link. Click on the title of a post to edit the post …

(Table of Posts – Post Title column)

Hovering your mouse over the post title also lets you edit the post and see your post options …

(Hover over post title with cursor to view options)

The following actions are available:

• Edit takes you to the Post editor. You can also arrive at this screen if you click on the title of the post.
• Quick Edit gives you access to your post metadata. To learn more about how to use the Quick editor feature, see this tutorial: Using The WordPress Inline Editor To Edit Your Posts And Pages
• Trash removes posts from the Table of Posts and moves them to the trash. From there posts can be permanently deleted.
• Preview will show you what your draft posts will look like when they are published. ‘View’ takes you to the live site so you can view your posts. Which link is displayed will depend on the status of your post.

Post status indicators let you see if the post has been saved as Draft, Sticky Post, Password Protected, etc …

(Table of Posts – Post Status indicator)

Post Author

Posts authors are displayed in the ‘Author’ column …

(Table of Posts – Post Author)

If your website contains multiple authors, click on a specific author’s name …

(Author links are clickable)

This displays a list of all posts that have been authored by that user …

(List of all posts authored by the same user)

Categories

This column displays post categories.

Click on a specific category inside the column …

(Categories column)

And the Posts table displays all posts filed under that particular category …

(Posts listed by categories)

Post Tags Column

Here, you can view all the tags your posts have been published or scheduled to publish under.

Click on any tag in this column …

(Table of Posts – Post tag links are clickable)

And all posts which include that tag will display in your Posts table …

(Posts sorted by tag)

Comments

The column with the “commenting bubble” shows the number of comments for each post. The number of comments made on a post will appear in the comment bubble next to each post.

You can view post comments by simply clicking on the bubble icon …

(Click on the bubble to view comments)

If any post has comments that need to be approved by an administrator before they can be displayed, these will appear next to the comment icon for that post …

(Comments – Posts Table)

The number of approved comments is displayed inside the post’s comment bubble …

(Comments column)

Note: Clicking on the comments bubble opens up the Comments screen where you can approve or disapprove comments left by visitors and users …

(Manage comments left by visitors in the Comments section)

Date Column

The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for each post as follows:

• The Published date for published posts,
• The Last Modified date for unpublished posts (e.g. draft posts), and
• The Scheduled date for any posts scheduled for publishing at a later date …

(Post date)

As well as displaying posts using the default ‘List’ view, you can also display your posts in the Table of Posts using ‘Excerpt’ view …

(Excerpt View)

How to display posts in Excerpt View is explained in the section below.

WordPress Posts Table – Screen Options

To view options and settings for configuring your Table of Posts, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top of the screen …

(Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’)

The top section of the Posts panel will expand, revealing several options for configuring your Table of Posts …

(Posts: Screen Options – Table of Posts options)

Options are divided into the following sections

• Columns – This section lets you tick/untick checkboxes to enable/disable information in your Table of Posts.
• Pagination – Enter the number of items to display on each page of your Table of Posts. For example, “50”.
• View Mode – Select whether you want items to display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.

Remember to click ‘Apply’ to update your settings when you are done …

(Save Table of Posts options)

WordPress Table Of Posts – Sorting And Filtering

WordPress provides various options to sort, filter, and display selected posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following links and the amount of posts with that status:

(Table of Posts – Post menu filters)

• All – Click on this link to bring up a list of posts created by all authors.
• Mine – Click on this link to bring up a list of only your posts.
• Published – Click on this menu filter to display all posts set to ‘published’ status.
• Scheduled – The ‘Scheduled’ posts menu filter shows all scheduled posts.
• Draft – The ‘Draft’ menu returns all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
• Pending – The ‘Pending’ posts menu link displays all pending posts. (Posts listed as ‘pending’ need the review and approval of an Editor or Administrator before they can be published.)
• Private – Click on this menu link to show all private posts.
• Trash – The ‘Trash’ menu displays all posts set to ‘trash’ status

Clicking on any of these links displays only the posts associated with that status in the Table of Posts …

(Table of Posts – Click post menu links to view by status)

Below the menu links and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional post filtering features:

View Posts – All Dates/Months

WordPress lets you filter posts by dates. By default, Show all dates is selected and displays all of your posts.

Select a specific month from the Posts > ‘All dates’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to filter posts by date …

(Filter Posts – All Dates/Months)

Filter Posts – All Categories

In the Table of Posts, you can also filter posts by categories. By default, All Categories is selected and displays all posts.

To filter posts by category, select a category from the ‘All Categories’ drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …

(Filter Posts by Category)

If your site has a large number of posts spanning across many pages, you can use the Search Posts function to filter and display only posts containing the words you have entered into the search field …

(Search function)

To clear the results of the search filter and view all posts again in the Table of Posts, click the ‘All’ link above the table …

(Click ’All’ to remove your search filter results)

The search filter results will be cleared and all of your posts will be listed once again in the Table of Posts …

(WordPress Posts section – Table of Posts)

Next Step …

Now that you know a little more about what all the different features of the Table of Posts are and how they work, the next step is to learn how to edit and delete your posts in WordPress.

This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.

Click below to keep reading:

Editing And Deleting A Post In WordPress – Part Two

Related WordPress Articles And Tutorials

The articles and tutorials below will help you better understand the features discussed above and how to use posts in WordPress:

• WordPress Posts & Pages
• How To Create A New Post In WordPress
• The Inline Editor Function Of WordPress
• How To Schedule WordPress Blog Posts For Publishing At A Later Date And Time
• Why Make Your WordPress Post Sticky?
• WordPress Content Protection For Pages And Posts
• Website Traffic Blueprint Part Four – Learn How To Create A Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress
• How To Change WordPress Post Authors
• How To Add, Edit, And Delete WordPress Categories
• Configuring And Using Post Tags In WordPress

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