How To Edit And Delete WordPress Posts

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

WordPress makes the task of editing content and deleting posts a relatively simple process.

This tutorial shows you how to edit and delete a single post. It also explains to use the features of the WordPress Posts Table to perform single and bulk post edits and deletions and includes additional tips that will help you save time using posts in WordPress.

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

• The WordPress Table Of Posts Explained
  • WordPress Table of Posts – Screen Options
  • Table Of Posts – Filtering And Sorting
• How To Edit Posts
  • How To Edit A WordPress Post
  • Editing Multiple WordPress Posts
• Deleting Posts In WordPress
  • Deleting Single Posts In WordPress
  • Deleting Multiple Posts
• Editing And Deleting WordPress Posts – Additional Information

Accessing The Posts Section

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

(Posts – All Posts)

This brings you to the Posts section …

(Posts area)

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

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

We have created a detailed tutorial on adding a new WordPress post here: Creating A Post In WordPress

WordPress Post Management Section

The Table of Posts includes posts that have already been published, scheduled posts, private posts, sticky posts, posts that are yet to be published, and posts that need to be approved 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 …

(WordPress Table of Posts – Post dates column)

Multiple posts can be selected for editing or deletion by ticking the checkbox next to each item (see Part 2 of this tutorial to learn more about bulk editing posts) …

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

WordPress Table Of Posts – Columns

Title

Each post title displays in this column as a clickable link. Click on a title to edit your post …

(Title column)

Hovering your mouse over the post title displays your post management actions …

(Hover over post title area to view options)

The following post management actions are available:

• Edit takes you to the editing screen for that post. You can also reach this screen by clicking on the title.
• Quick Edit provides inline access to the metadata of your post. We have written a step-by-step tutorial on using the Quick editor here: How To Use The Inline Editor In WordPress To Edit Your Pages And Posts
• Trash removes the 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 post will look like when you publish it. ‘View’ takes you to the live site to view the post. Which link is displayed will depend on your post’s status.

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

(Post Status indicator)

Post Author

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

(Table of Posts – Post Author)

If your site allows multiple authors to publish content, 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 that user in your Table of Posts …

(You can display a list of all posts authored by a user)

Post Categories

This column displays post categories.

Click on a specific category …

(Post category links are clickable)

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

(List of posts displayed by categories)

Post Tags

This column lets you see all the tags for your posts.

Click on a specific tag …

(Tag links are clickable)

And the Posts table returns all posts which include that tag …

(Posts sorted by tags)

Comments Column

The column with the “comments bubble” lists the number of comments for each post. The number of comments made on posts is displayed in the comment bubble next to each post.

To view comments left on posts, just click on the comment bubble …

(Click on the bubble to view comments)

If any posts have comments that need to be approved by an administrator before they can be displayed, these will display alongside the comment icon for that post …

(Table of Posts: Post comments)

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

(Table of Posts: Post comments)

Note: Clicking on the comments bubble brings up the Comments panel where you can approve or disapprove comments …

(Comments section)

Post Date

The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for posts 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 any posts scheduled for publishing at a later date …

(Post date column)

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

(Excerpt View)

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

Post Management Area – Screen Options

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

(WordPress Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’)

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

(Table of Posts options)

Options are divided into the following sections

• Columns – This section lets you enable/disable.
• Pagination – Enter the number of items to display on each page of your Table of Posts.
• View Mode – Here you can choose whether items should be displayed in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.

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

(Save Posts options)

Table Of Posts – Post Sorting Options And Menu Links

WordPress offers various features that let you filter, sort, and display selected posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following links in your Posts menu:

(WordPress Table of Posts – Menu options)

• All – The ‘All’ menu shows all posts.
• Mine – Click on this link to bring up a list of only posts authored by you.
• Published – Clicking this menu link lists all published posts.
• Scheduled – The ‘Scheduled’ filter lists all posts set to ‘scheduled’ status.
• Draft – Click on this menu link to list all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
• Pending – The ‘Pending’ posts menu link shows all posts set to ‘pending’ status. (Posts set as ‘pending’ need the approval of an Editor or Administrator for publishing.)
• Private – Click on this link to list all posts set to ‘private’ status.
• Trash – Click on this link to display all deleted posts

Click the menu links to view posts by status …

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

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

View Posts – All Dates/Months

The WordPress Table of Posts lets you filter posts by months. Show all dates is selected by default and displays all posts.

To filter posts by date, select a specific period from the Posts > ‘All dates’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …

(Post Dates Filtering)

Post Filter – All Categories

In the Table of Posts, you can also filter posts by category. All Categories is selected by default and all posts are listed.

Use the drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to select and display posts by category …

(Filter Posts – All Categories)

If there are many posts spanning across many pages, you can use the Search feature to filter and display only posts that contain the words you’ve typed into the search field …

(Search Posts function – WordPress Posts screen)

To clear the search filter results and display all posts again in the Table of Posts, click the ‘All’ link in the posts area 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 panel – Table of Posts)

Next Step …

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

This is the end of part one of this tutorial.

To keep reading, click the link below:

Editing And Deleting Posts In WordPress – Part Two

Related WordPress Tutorials And Articles

The tutorials and articles below provide more detail about topics discussed above and how to get more benefit from using WordPress posts:

• WordPress Posts & Pages
• How To Create A New Post In WordPress
• Overview Of The WordPress Inline Editor
• How To Schedule WordPress Blog Posts
• Why Make WordPress Posts Sticky?
• How To Protect Content On WP Posts And Pages
• WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint Part Four – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Web Visitors Automatically Using WordPress
• Reassigning A Post To Other Authors
• Adding, Editing, And Deleting Categories In WordPress
• How To Set Up Tags

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