In other tutorials, we explain the main differences between a WordPress Post and a WordPress Page and show you how to create a new WordPress post.
In WordPress, editing and deleting posts is a relatively simple and easy process.
This step-by-step tutorial shows you how to edit and delete a single WordPress post. This tutorial also explains to use the features of the WordPress Posts Table to perform single and bulk edits and post deletions and includes additional tips that will save you time using WordPress.
Parts One and Two of this comprehensive tutorial cover the following:
- WordPress Table Of Posts
- WordPress Table of Posts – Screen Options
- WordPress Table Of Posts – Post Sorting And Filtering Options
- Editing Posts
- Editing An Individual Post
- Editing Bulk Posts
- How To Delete Posts In WordPress
- How To Delete Single Posts
- Deleting Bulk WordPress Posts
- Editing And Deleting Posts In WordPress – Additional Tips And Information
Contents
Accessing The Posts Section
Log into your WordPress site, then go to the main navigation menu and click on Posts > All Posts …
(WP Posts Menu – All Posts)
This brings up the Posts section …
(Posts page)
Here you can add, edit, and delete posts …
(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts page)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about creating a new post in WordPress, go here: Creating A New Post In WordPress
The WordPress Table Of Posts Explained
The Table of Posts includes posts that have already been published, posts scheduled for publishing, sticky posts, private posts, draft posts (posts that are yet to be published), and pending posts (posts that need to be approved before being published).
Let’s take a look at the main features of the WordPress Table of Posts:
The WordPress Table of Posts lists all of your posts in a row in reverse chronological order …
(Posts are displayed in reverse chronological order)
Posts can be selected for bulk actions like editing or deleting by ticking the checkbox next to each item (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
The title of each post displays as a clickable link. Clicking on the post title lets you edit that post …
(Post Title column)
Hover your mouse over the post title to reveal features that let you manage your posts …
(Hover over title to view options)
You can perform the following post management actions:
- Edit takes you to the Post editor. You can also reach the Post Edit area if you click on the title.
- Quick Edit allows you to update your post details. To learn more about using the Quick editor feature of WordPress, go here: The WordPress Inline Editor
- Trash removes posts from the Table of Posts and places them in the trash. From there posts can be permanently deleted.
- Preview will show you what your draft posts will look like when you publish them. ‘View’ will take you to your live site to view the posts. Which link is displayed depends on the status of your post.
Indicators will tell you if posts have been saved as Draft, Sticky Post, Password Protected, etc …
(Post Status)
Author Column
Posts authors are displayed in the ‘Author’ column …
(Table of Posts – Post Author)
If your website allows multiple authors to publish content, click on a specific author’s name …
(Table of Posts – Post author column)
This displays a list of all the posts authored by that user in your Table of Posts …
(List of all posts authored by the same user)
Post Categories
In this column, you can see all the categories that your posts have been filed under.
Click on a specific category …
(Categories)
And all posts including that category will appear in the Posts table …
(Sorting posts by category)
Post Tags Column
This column displays the tags associated with each post.
Click on any tag …
(Tags)
And only posts which include that tag will appear in your Posts table …
(List of posts sorted by tag)
Post Comments Column
The column with the “commenting bubble” shows the number of comments made for your posts. The number of comments made on your posts appears in the comment bubble next to the post.
You can view any comments simply by clicking on the icon …
(Click on the bubble to view comments for that post)
If any post has comments that need to be approved by an administrator before they can be displayed, the number of comments awaiting moderation will display next to the comment bubble for that post …
(Comments – WordPress Table of Posts)
With approved comments, the number displays inside the post’s commenting graphic …
(Comments)
Note: Clicking on the comments icon brings up the Comments area where you can manage comments left by visitors and users …
(Comments area)
Post Date
The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for each post as follows:
- The Published date for all published posts,
- The Last Modified date for unpublished posts (e.g. draft posts), and
- The Scheduled date for posts scheduled for publishing at a future date …
(Date column)
As well as listing posts using the default ‘List’ view, the Posts table 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 next section.
WordPress Posts Table – Screen Options
To view Table of Posts options, click the ‘Screen Options’ tab on the top right-hand corner of the screen …
(Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’)
The top section of your screen expands and reveals 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 tick/untick checkboxes to display/hide information in the Table of Posts.
- Pagination – Enter the number of items to display on each page of your Table of Posts. For example, “30” The default is “20” items per page.
- View Mode – Specify whether entries should display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.
Click ‘Apply’ to save and update your settings …
(Table of Posts options)
Post Management Screen – Sorting And Filtering
WordPress provides a number of features that let you filter, sort, and display selected posts. Depending on your post status, you will see the following menu links:
(Post management area – Post menu options)
- All – The ‘All’ filter displays all posts.
- Mine – The ‘Mine’ filter displays only posts authored by you.
- Published – The ‘Published’ posts menu filter lists all published posts.
- Scheduled – Clicking this menu link brings up all posts set to ‘scheduled’ status.
- Draft – The ‘Draft’ menu filter lists all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
- Pending – Clicking this link shows all pending posts. (Posts listed as ‘pending’ need to be reviewed and approved by an Editor or Administrator before they can be published.)
- Private – Click on this menu link to display all posts set to ‘private’ status.
- Trash – Click on this menu link to display all trashed posts
Click the post menu links to view posts by status …
(Post Management Screen – Click post menu links to view by status)
Below the post status filter and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional post filtering features:
View Posts – All Dates/Months
The Posts table lets you filter posts by months. By default, Show all dates is selected and displays all posts.
Select a month from the Posts > ‘All dates’ drop-down menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to display all posts that fall within your selection …
(Filter – All Dates/Months)
View Posts – All Categories/Categories
In the Table of Posts, you can also filter posts by category. All Categories is selected by default and all posts are listed.
Select a specific category from the Posts > ‘All Categories’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to display posts assigned to your selected option …
(Filtering Posts by Category)
If there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages, use the Search Posts button to filter and display only posts that contain the words entered into the search field …
(Table of Posts – Search feature)
To remove the search filter results and list all posts again in the Table of Posts, click the ‘All’ link 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 …
(WordPress Posts area – Table of Posts)
Next Step …
Now that you have a better understanding of the Table of Posts, the next step is to learn how to edit and delete posts.
This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click on the link below:
How To Edit And Delete A Post In WordPress – Part Two
Related WordPress Articles And Tutorials
The articles and tutorials below provide more detail about topics discussed above and how to get more benefit from using WordPress posts:
- WordPress Pages And Posts
- How To Create A Post In WordPress
- How To Use The WordPress Inline Editor Function To Edit Your Posts And Pages
- How To Schedule Posts In WP
- How To Create A Featured Post In WordPress
- How To Password-Protect Content In WordPress
- WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint Part Four – How To Automatically Attract More Traffic For Your Business With WordPress
- Reassigning Posts To Other Authors
- How To Configure And Use Post Categories In WordPress
- How To Add, Edit, And Delete Post Tags In WordPress
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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