In other articles and tutorials, we look at the difference between Posts and Pages and show you how to create a new post.
In WordPress, editing and deleting posts is very easy.
In this tutorial, you will learn about editing and deleting single and multiple posts in WordPress. It also explains to use the built-in features of the WordPress Posts Table for performing individual and multiple post edits and deletions and includes additional tips that will save you time working with WordPress.
Parts 1 and 2 of this comprehensive tutorial cover the following:
- Posts Screen - The Table Of Posts
- Table of Posts – Screen Options
- WordPress Table Of Posts – Filtering And Sorting
- Editing Posts
- How To Edit Single Posts
- How To Edit Bulk WordPress Posts
- How To Delete Posts
- Deleting Individual WordPress Posts
- How To Delete Bulk Posts In WordPress
- Editing And Deleting Posts – Useful Information
Contents
The Posts Screen
Go to your WP Dashboard and select Posts > All Posts …
(WordPress Posts Menu – All Posts)
This brings you to the WordPress Posts page …
(Posts section)
In this area, you can add, edit, and delete posts …
(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts area)
If you need help creating a new WordPress post, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post
WordPress Table Of Posts – Features
The Table of Posts lists your published posts, 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 WordPress Table of Posts:
The Table of Posts displays a list of all your posts with your most recent posts listed at the top …
(Post dates)
You can select checkboxes in the WordPress Table of Posts to bulk edit posts (see Part Two of this tutorial to learn more about bulk editing posts) …
(Select checkboxes in the WordPress Table of Posts to bulk edit posts)
WordPress Table Of Posts – Columns
Post Title
The title of each post displays in this column as a clickable link. Click on a post title to edit the post …
(Posts Table – Title column)
Hovering over the post title also lets you edit the post and see other post links …
(Hover over post title with cursor to view options)
You can perform the following tasks:
- 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 provides inline access to the metadata of your post. For a step-by-step tutorial on using Quick Edit, go here: The WordPress Quick Edit Feature
- Trash removes posts from the Table of Posts and places them in the trash. From there your posts can be permanently deleted.
- Preview shows you what your draft post will look like when it is published. ‘View’ takes you to your live site to view the post. Which link is displayed depends on the status of your post.
Indicators will tell you if your post has been saved as Draft, Private Post, Password Protected, etc …
(Table of Posts – Post Status indicator)
Author Column
Posts authors are listed in the ‘Author’ column …
(Table of Posts – Post Author column)
If your site allows multiple authors to publish content, click on an author name …
(Table of Posts – Post author links are clickable)
This displays a list of all posts authored by that user …
(You can display a list of all posts authored by a user)
Post Categories Column
Here, you can view post categories.
Click on any category …
(Categories column – WordPress Table of Posts)
And all posts including that category will display in your Posts table …
(Filtering posts by categories)
Post Tags Column
This column lets you see your post tags.
Click on a specific tag …
(Tags column)
And your Posts table filters and displays all posts filed under that particular tag …
(Posts sorted by tag)
Post Comments Column
The column with the “commenting bubble” lets you see the number of comments made for your posts. If comments have been left on posts, the number of comments displays in the comment bubble next to each post.
To view any comments, just click on the comment bubble …
(Click on the bubble to view comments for that post)
If any post has pending comments, these will appear alongside the comment bubble for that post …
(Table of Posts: Comments)
The number of approved comments is shown inside the post’s comment bubble …
(WordPress Table of Posts: Comments – Approved comments)
Note: Clicking on the comments bubble opens up the Comments section where you can approve or disapprove comments …
(Moderate comments left by visitors and users in the Comments area)
Post Date Column
The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for posts as follows:
- The Published date for published posts,
- The Last Modified date for unpublished posts (e.g. posts set to ‘draft’ status), and
- The Scheduled date for all posts set to publish in the future …
(Date)
In addition to displaying posts using the default ‘List’ view, the Table of Posts can also display your posts with ‘Excerpt’ view …
(Post Excerpts View)
To display posts in the Table of Posts in Post Excerpt view, see the section below.
WordPress Posts Panel – Screen Options
To view Table of Posts options, click the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen …
(Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’ tab)
The top section of the Posts panel 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 lets you display/hide.
- Pagination – Enter the number of items to display on each page of your Table of Posts.
- View Mode – Here you can specify whether you would like entries to display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.
Remember to click the ‘Apply’ button to update your settings when you are done …
(Save Table of Posts options)
WordPress Table Of Posts – Sorting And Filtering
WordPress provides a number of options and menu links to filter, sort, and display selected posts. Depending on your post status, you will see the following menu links:
(WordPress Table of Posts – Post menu filters)
- All – Click on this link to display posts created by all authors.
- Mine – The ‘Mine’ menu filter shows only your posts.
- Published – Click on this menu filter to show all posts set to ‘published’ status.
- Scheduled – Click on this filter to list all scheduled posts.
- Draft – Clicking this link lists all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
- Pending – Clicking this link shows all posts set to ‘pending’ status. (Posts listed as ‘pending’ need to be reviewed and approved by an Editor or Administrator before publishing.)
- Private – Clicking this menu filter returns all posts set to ‘private’ status.
- Trash – Click on this filter to show all posts set to ‘trash’ status
Click post menu links to filter posts by status …
(Table of Posts – Click menu links to view posts by status)
Below the menu links and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional post filtering features:
Filter By Dates
The Table of Posts lets you filter posts by months. By default, Show all dates is selected and displays all posts.
Use the drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to display posts by date …
(View Posts by Dates)
Filter By Category
WordPress also lets you filter posts by category. By default, All Categories is selected and displays all posts.
To display all posts assigned to a particular category, select a specific category from the Posts > ‘All Categories’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …
(View Posts – All Categories/Selected Categories)
If there are many posts spanning across many pages, use the Search Posts button to filter and display only posts containing the words or phase you have typed into the search field …
(Search Posts button – Posts screen)
To clear the results of the search filter and view all posts again, click the ‘All’ posts filter link above the table …
(Click ’All’ to remove the results of the search filter)
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 what all the different sections and functions of the Table of Posts are and how they work, the next step is to learn how to edit and delete posts in WordPress.
Related Tutorials And Articles
The tutorials and articles below will help you better understand topics discussed above and how to use posts in WordPress:
- WordPress Posts & Pages
- How To Create A New WP Post
- Using The Quick Edit Feature In WordPress To Edit Your Posts And Pages
- How To Schedule WordPress Posts
- What Does A Sticky Post Do?
- WordPress Content Protection For Posts And Pages
- Web Traffic Blueprint Part 4 – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Website Visitors Automatically Using WordPress
- Reattributing A Post To Other Users
- How To Add, Edit, And Delete Categories In WordPress
- Adding, Editing, And Deleting Tags
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This is the end of section one of this tutorial.
To keep reading, click on the link below:
How To Edit And Delete WordPress Posts – Part Two
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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