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 explain the difference between Posts and Pages and show you how to create a new WordPress post.

In WordPress, editing and deleting posts is quite simple.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to edit and delete individual posts, how to use the WordPress Table of Posts for performing individual and multiple post edits and deletions and provides useful tips that will save you time using WordPress.

Parts 1 and 2 of this comprehensive tutorial cover the following:

• How To Use The Table Of Posts
  • Table of Posts – Screen Options
  • Table Of Posts – Sorting Posts
• Editing WordPress Posts
  • Editing A Post In WordPress
  • How To Edit Bulk WordPress Posts
• How To Delete Posts In WordPress
  • How To Delete Individual Posts
  • How To Delete Multiple WordPress Posts
• Editing And Deleting Posts – Useful Tips

Posts Panel

In the Dashboard menu section, choose Posts > All Posts …

(Posts – All Posts)

This brings you to the Posts area …

(WordPress Posts section)

In this area, you can add, edit, and delete posts …

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

To learn more about creating a new post in WordPress, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post

Using The Table Of Posts

The Table of Posts displays posts that have already been published, posts scheduled for publishing, sticky posts, private posts, posts that are yet to be published (draft posts), and posts that need to be approved by an administrator or editor before being published (pending posts).

Here are the main features of the Table of Posts:

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

(Posts display in reverse chronological order)

You can select checkboxes in the Table of Posts to bulk edit posts (see Part 2 of this tutorial to learn more about bulk editing posts) …

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

Table Of Posts – Column Sections

Title

The title of each post is displayed in this column as a clickable link. Clicking on a post title lets you edit the post …

(Post Title column)

Hovering your mouse over a row in the posts list also lets you edit the post and view your post management actions …

(Hover over title area with cursor to view options)

You can perform the following post management actions:

• Edit takes you to the Post editor. You can also reach this screen if you click on the title.
• Quick Edit gives you access to the metadata of your post. For a tutorial on using the Quick Edit feature of WordPress, go here: The WordPress Inline Editor Feature
• Trash removes posts from the list of posts and moves them to the trash. From there posts can be permanently deleted.
• Preview shows you what your draft posts will look like when they are published. ‘View’ takes you to your live site to view the posts. Which link is displayed will depend on your posts’ status.

Post status indicators let you see if posts have been saved as Draft, Private, Password Protected, etc …

(Table of Posts – Post Status indicator)

Post Author

The Post author is 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 will display a list of all the posts that have been authored by the user …

(List of all posts authored by a user)

Categories

Here, you can see your post categories.

Click on a specific category …

(Categories)

And only posts which include that category will appear in the Table of Posts …

(Viewing posts by category)

Post Tags

This column shows you the tags you’ve assigned to each post.

Click on a specific tag …

(Tags column – Posts Table)

And all posts including that tag will be listed in the Table of Posts …

(List of posts displayed by tag)

Comments Column

The column with the “comments bubble” lists the number of comments for each post. If posts have comments, the number of comments displays in the comment bubble next to each post.

To view any comments, click on the bubble icon …

(Clicking on the bubble lets you view comments for that post)

If any post has pending comments, these will display next to the bubble graphic for that post …

(WordPress Table of Posts: Post comments column)

For approved comments, the number is displayed inside the post’s comment bubble …

(Post comments – Table of Posts)

Note: Clicking on the comments icon opens up the Comments area where you can approve or disapprove comments left by visitors …

(Manage comments left on your posts by visitors and users in the Comments panel)

Post Date

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

• The Published date for published posts,
• The Last Modified date for all unpublished posts (e.g. posts set to ‘draft’ status), and
• The Scheduled date for any posts scheduled for publishing in the future …

(Date – WordPress Table of Posts)

In addition to displaying posts using the default ‘List’ view, you can also display posts in the Table of Posts using ‘Excerpt’ view …

(Excerpts View – Table of Posts)

The section below explains how to display posts in the Table of Posts in Excerpt view.

Table of Posts – Screen Options

To view options and settings for configuring your Table of Posts, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top right-hand corner of the screen …

(Table of Posts – ‘Screen Options’ tab)

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

(Table of Posts options)

Options are divided into the following sections

• Columns – This section allows you to display/hide.
• Pagination – Enter the number of entries to display on each page of your Table of Posts. For example, “30”.
• View Mode – Select whether posts should display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.

Click the ‘Apply’ button to update your settings …

(Save Posts options)

WordPress Table Of Posts – Post Filtering Options

WordPress provides various features and menu links that let you sort, filter, and display your posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following links in your Posts menu and the existing number of posts assigned to that status:

(Table of Posts – Post menu options)

• All – Click on this link to list all posts.
• Mine – Clicking this link lists only the posts authored by the logged- in user.
• Published – Clicking this menu filter displays all published posts.
• Scheduled – Clicking this menu filter lists all posts set to ‘scheduled’ status.
• Draft – The ‘Draft’ posts menu filter displays all draft posts.
• Pending – Clicking this menu filter brings up all pending posts. (Posts set as ‘pending’ need the approval of an Editor or Administrator for publishing.)
• Private – Click on this filter to list all posts set to ‘private’ status.
• Trash – Click on this filter to list all discarded posts

Click the post menu links to filter posts by status …

(WordPress Table of Posts – Click menu links to filter by status)

Below the menu filter and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop-down menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional post filtering options:

View Posts Filter – All Dates/Selected Months

In the Table of Posts, you can filter posts by dates. Show all dates is the default selection and displays all posts.

Use the drop-down menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to filter posts by date …

(View Posts by Dates)

View Posts By Category

WordPress also lets you filter posts by category. All Categories is the default selection and posts in all categories are listed.

Use the dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to filter posts by category …

(View Posts – All Categories/Categories)

Use the Search function to filter and display only posts containing key phrases entered into the search field. This is useful if there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages …

(Search Posts button – Posts screen)

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

(Remove the search filter results by clicking ’All’)

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

(Posts area – Table of Posts)

Next Step …

Now that you have a better understanding of all the different sections and features of the WordPress Table of Posts, the next step is to learn how to edit and delete posts in WordPress.

This is the end of part one of this tutorial.

Click on the link below to read Part Two:

Editing And Deleting Posts In WordPress – Part Two

Related Tutorials And Articles

To learn more about using WordPress posts, see the tutorials and articles below:

• WordPress Posts And Pages
• How To Create A New Post In WordPress
• Understanding The Inline Editor Of WordPress
• How To Schedule WP Blog Posts
• Why Make A WordPress Post Sticky?
• WordPress Content Protection For Posts And Pages
• Web Site Traffic Blueprint Part Four – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Website Into A Traffic Machine
• Reattributing A Post To Different Users In WordPress
• How To Add, Edit, And Delete Categories In WordPress
• Configuring Tags In Posts

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