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 differences between Posts and Pages and show you how to create a new post in WordPress.

WordPress tasks like editing and deleting posts a relatively simple and easy process.

In this tutorial, you will learn about editing and deleting a single post, how to use the features of the WordPress Table of Posts to perform individual and multiple post edits and deletions and provides additional tips to save you time working with WordPress.

Tutorial content:

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

The Posts Screen

Log into your WordPress dashboard, then go to the main navigation menu and select Posts > All Posts …

(WordPress Posts Menu – All Posts)

This brings you to the Posts panel …

(Posts section)

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

(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts screen)

For a detailed tutorial about creating new posts in WordPress, go here: Creating A New WP Post

The WordPress Table Of Posts Explained

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

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

The Table of Posts lists all of your posts in a row in reverse chronological order …

(Table of Posts – Post dates)

Posts can be selected for bulk actions like editing or deleting by ticking the check box next to each post (see Part 2 of this tutorial for more details about bulk editing posts) …

(Select checkboxes in the WordPress Table of Posts to bulk edit posts)

Table Of Posts – Columns

Post Title Column

Each post title is displayed as a clickable link. Clicking on a post title lets you edit that post …

(Title column)

Hover over a row in the posts list display other post actions …

(Hover over title to view options)

You can perform the following post management actions:

• Edit takes you to the editing screen for that post. You can also arrive at the Post editor by clicking on the post title.
• Quick Edit gives you access to the metadata of your post. To learn more about Quick Edit, go here: Understanding The Quick Edit Function Of WordPress
• Trash removes a post from the Table of Posts and moves it to the trash. From there you can permanently delete it.
• Preview shows 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 displays here depends on your post’s status.

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

(Post Status)

Post Author

The Post author is displayed in the ‘Author’ column …

(Table of Posts – Post Author column)

If your site allows multiple authors to publish content, click on a specific author’s name …

(Table of Posts – Post author column)

This will display all posts authored by that user …

(List of all posts authored by a user)

Categories

This column displays all the categories that your posts have been assigned to.

Click on a category inside the column …

(Post category links are clickable)

And the Posts table filters and lists all posts which include that particular category …

(List of posts sorted by categories)

Tags Column

This column displays all the tags for your posts.

Click on a specific tag …

(Tag links are clickable)

And only posts filed under that tag will show up in your Posts table …

(List of posts displayed by tag)

Post Comments

The column with the “commenting bubble” displays the number of comments associated with your posts. If comments have been made on posts, the number of comments will appear in the comment bubble next to each post.

To view comments left on posts, simply click on the icon …

(Click on the bubble to view comments for that post)

If any post has pending comments, the number of comments awaiting approval will display alongside the bubble graphic for that post …

(Table of Posts: Post comments column)

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

(Post comments – Posts Table)

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

(Moderate comments left on your posts by visitors and users in the Comments screen)

Post Date

The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for posts 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 posts scheduled for publishing in the future …

(Date column)

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

(Post Excerpts View)

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

Post Management Section – Screen Options

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

(WordPress Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’ tab)

The top section of your screen will expand, revealing a number of options for configuring your Table of Posts …

(Posts: Screen Options – 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 your page
• View Mode – Select whether posts should display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.

Click the ‘Apply’ button to save and update your settings when you are done …

(Table of Posts options)

WordPress Table Of Posts – Sorting Posts

WordPress provides a number of features and menu links to filter and display your posts. Depending on your post status, you will see the following menu links and the amount of posts assigned to that status:

(WordPress Table of Posts – Post menu options)

• All – Clicking this link displays all posts.
• Mine – The ‘Mine’ menu filter lists only posts authored by you.
• Published – Click on this menu link to show all posts set to ‘published’ status.
• Scheduled – The ‘Scheduled’ menu filter returns all posts set to ‘scheduled’ status.
• Draft – Clicking this filter brings up all draft posts.
• Pending – Click on this menu filter to bring up a list of all posts set to ‘pending’ status. (Posts marked as ‘pending’ need the approval of Editors or Administrators before they can be published.)
• Private – Click on this link to display all posts set to ‘private’ status.
• Trash – Clicking this menu filter shows all posts set to ‘trash’ status

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

(WordPress Table of Posts – Click menu links to view posts 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 Filter – All Dates/Selected Months

The WordPress Table of Posts lets you filter posts by months. Show all dates is the default selection and all posts are displayed.

To display all posts within a particular date range, select a specific month from the Posts > ‘All dates’ drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …

(Filtering by Date)

Post Filter – All Categories

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

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

(View Posts by Category)

Use the Search feature to filter and display only posts that contain keywords you’ve typed into the search field. This is useful if there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages …

(Search Posts button)

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

(Click the ‘All’ link to clear 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 …

(WordPress Posts page – Table of Posts)

Next Step …

Now that you have a better understanding 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 section one of this tutorial.

To view Part 2, click the link below:

How To Edit And Delete A WordPress Post – Part 2

Related Articles And Tutorials

To gain a better understanding of WordPress posts, see the tutorials and articles below:

• WordPress Posts And Pages
• How To Create A New WP Post
• The Inline Editor Of WordPress
• How To Schedule WP Blog Posts For Publishing At A Future Date
• How To Create Featured WordPress Posts
• WordPress Content Protection For Pages And Posts
• Website Traffic Blueprint Part 4 – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Site Into An Automated Traffic Generation Machine
• Reattributing WordPress Posts To Other Authors
• Using Categories In Posts
• Adding, Editing, And Deleting Tags In WordPress Posts

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