In other articles and tutorials, we look at the main difference between WordPress Posts vs WordPress Pages and show you how to create a new post in WordPress.
WordPress tasks like editing content and deleting posts a relatively simple and easy process.
In this tutorial, you will learn about editing and deleting an individual post. It also explains to use the built-in features of the WordPress Table of Posts for performing individual and bulk post edits and deletions and provides many other useful tips that will help you save time using WordPress.
Tutorial content:
- Table Of Posts – Features
- WordPress Table of Posts – Screen Options
- WordPress Table Of Posts – Sorting Options
- Editing WordPress Posts
- Editing Single Posts
- How To Edit Multiple Posts In WordPress
- Deleting WordPress Posts
- Deleting Individual Posts In WordPress
- How To Delete Bulk Posts In WordPress
- Editing And Deleting Posts In WordPress – Useful Tips
Contents
The Posts Panel
In the administration section, click on Posts > All Posts …
(Posts – All Posts)
This brings you to the WordPress Posts panel …
(WordPress Posts panel)
In this panel, you can add, edit, and delete posts …
(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts area)
We have created a detailed tutorial on how to create a new WordPress post here: Creating A New Post In WordPress
The WordPress Table Of Posts Explained
The Table of Posts displays posts that have already been published, scheduled posts, sticky posts, private posts, draft posts (not yet published), and pending posts (posts that need to be approved by an editor or administrator before being published).
Let’s go through some of the main features of the Table of Posts:
The Table of Posts displays a list of all posts on your site listed in reverse chronological order (newest first) …
(Posts display in reverse chronological order)
Multiple posts can be selected by selecting the check box next to each item (see Part 2 of this tutorial for more details about bulk editing posts) …
(Select checkboxes to bulk edit posts)
WordPress Table Of Posts – Column Sections
Title
The title of each post displays as a clickable link. Click on a title to edit the post …
(Title column)
Hover over a row in the posts list to access links that will let you further manage your post …
(Hover over post title area with cursor to view options)
You can perform the following post management tasks:
- Edit takes you to the editing screen for that post. You can also arrive at this screen if you click on the title.
- Quick Edit lets you update post metadata. To learn more about using the Quick Edit feature, go here: The Inline Editor Function Of WordPress
- Trash removes your posts from the Table of Posts and moves them to the trash. From there your posts can be permanently deleted.
- Preview will show you what your draft post will look like when you publish it. ‘View’ takes you to the live site so you can view your post. Which link is displayed depends on the status of your posts.
Indicators next to title of your posts let you see if posts have been saved as Draft, Sticky Post, Password Protected, etc …
(Post Status)
Author Column
Posts authors are listed in the ‘Author’ column …
(Table of Posts – Post Author)
If your site allows multiple authors to publish content, click on an author name …
(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
This column lets you see your post categories.
Click on a category …
(Posts Table – Post category links are clickable)
And the Table of Posts lists only posts containing that category …
(Posts sorted by categories)
Post Tags
In this column, you can see post tags.
Click on a tag in this column …
(Tag links are clickable)
And the Table of Posts displays all posts which include that tag …
(Posts listed by tag)
Comments
The column with the “comment bubble” lists the number of comments made for each post. The number of comments appears in the comment bubble for that post.
To view comments, click on the bubble …
(View any comments left on posts by simply clicking on the comment bubble)
If any posts have pending comments, the number of comments awaiting approval will display next to the comment bubble for that post …
(Comments in review)
With approved comments, the number displays inside the post’s comment bubble …
(Post comments – WordPress Table of Posts)
Note: Clicking on the commenting icon opens up the Comments panel where you can manage comments left by visitors …
(Moderate comments left by visitors and users in the Comments screen)
Post Date Column
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. posts set to ‘draft’ status), and
- The Scheduled date for posts set to publish in the future …
(Date column)
In addition to displaying posts using the default ‘List’ view, you can also display your posts in the Table of Posts using ‘Excerpt’ view …
(Posts Table – Post Excerpts View)
How to display posts in Excerpt View is explained in the section below.
Post Management Area – Screen Options
To view Table of Posts options, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top right-hand corner of the screen …
(Table of Posts – ‘Screen Options’)
The top section of your screen expands and reveals several options for configuring your Table of Posts …
(Posts: Screen Options – Table of Posts options)
Options are divided into the following sections
- Columns – Here you can tick/untick checkboxes to enable/disable columns in the Table of Posts.
- Pagination – Enter the number of items to display on your page
- View Mode – Select whether items should be displayed in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.
Click the ‘Apply’ button to update your settings when you are done …
(Table of Posts options)
Post Management Screen – Sorting And Filtering Post Options
WordPress provides a number of features and menu links to sort, filter, and display your posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following menu links and the existing number of posts with that status:
(Post management section – Menu options)
- All – The ‘All’ posts menu link displays all posts.
- Mine – The ‘Mine’ posts menu filter shows only posts authored by you.
- Published – Click on this menu link to list all posts set to ‘published’ status.
- Scheduled – Click on this filter to show all posts set to ‘scheduled’ status.
- Draft – Clicking this filter brings up all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
- Pending – The ‘Pending’ menu filter lists all posts set to ‘pending’ status. (Posts listed as ‘pending’ need the review and approval of Editors or Administrators for publishing.)
- Private – The ‘Private’ menu filter returns all private posts.
- Trash – The ‘Trash’ menu filter shows all posts set to ‘trash’ status
Clicking on any of these links displays only the posts associated with that status in the Table of Posts …
(Table of Posts – Click post menu links to view posts by status)
Below the menu filter and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional post filtering options:
View Posts By Dates
In the Table of Posts, you can filter posts by months. By default, Show all dates is selected and displays all posts.
To display all posts that fall within a particular date range, select a specific month from the ‘All dates’ drop-down menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …
(View Posts by Dates)
View Posts – All Categories/Selected Categories
In the Table of Posts, you can also filter posts by category. All Categories is the default selection and all posts are displayed.
Use the dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to select and display posts by category …
(Category Filter)
If there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages, use the Search function to filter and display only posts containing the words entered into the search field …
(Search function)
To clear the search filter results and list all posts again, click the ‘All’ posts filter above the table …
(Remove the search filter results by clicking the ‘All’ link)
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 know a little 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 your posts.
This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.
To view Part 2, click the link below:
Editing And Deleting A Post In WordPress – Part 2
Related WordPress Tutorials And Articles
To gain a better understanding of WordPress posts, see the articles and tutorials listed below:
- WordPress Pages Vs Posts
- How To Create A Post In WordPress
- The WordPress Inline Editor Feature
- How To Schedule WP Blog Posts
- How To Make Featured WordPress Posts
- WordPress Content Protection For Pages And Posts
- Web Traffic Blueprint Part Four – A Complete Guide To Increasing Your Traffic Automatically
- How To Change WordPress Post Authors
- How To Set Up And Use WordPress Categories
- Configuring And Using WP Post Tags
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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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