In other articles and tutorials, we explain the differences between a Post and a Page and show you how to create a new WordPress post.
WordPress makes editing and deleting posts very simple.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to edit and delete a single WordPress post, how to use the built-in features of the WordPress Posts Table for performing single and bulk post edits and deletions and provides additional tips that will help you save time using WordPress.
Parts One and Two of this tutorial series cover the following:
- Table Of Posts
- Table of Posts – Screen Options
- WordPress Table Of Posts – Sorting And Filtering
- How To Edit Posts In WordPress
- How To Edit Single Posts
- How To Edit Multiple Posts In WordPress
- How To Delete WordPress Posts
- Deleting A Post
- How To Delete Bulk Posts In WordPress
- Editing And Deleting WordPress Posts – Useful Tips
Contents
The WordPress Posts Section
In the main menu of your admin area, select Posts > All Posts …
(Posts – All Posts)
This brings up the WordPress Posts page …
(WordPress Posts screen)
In this screen, you can add, edit, and delete posts …
(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts page)
If you need help creating new posts in WordPress, refer to this tutorial: Creating A Post In WordPress
WordPress Table Of Posts
The Table of Posts includes your published posts, scheduled posts, sticky posts, private posts, draft posts (posts that are yet to be published), and posts that need to be approved by an editor or administrator before being published (pending posts).
Let’s take a look at some of the main features of the Table of Posts:
The WordPress Table of Posts lists all of your posts in a row with the latest posts listed at the top …
(Posts display in reverse chronological order)
You can select checkboxes to bulk edit posts (see Part Two of this tutorial to learn more about bulk editing posts) …
(Select checkboxes in the Posts Title column to bulk edit posts)
WordPress Table Of Posts – Columns
Title
The title of each post displays as a clickable link. Click on the post title link to edit the post …
(Title column)
Hovering over a row in the posts list displays additional links that let you further manage your posts …
(Hover over post title with cursor to view options)
The following actions are available:
- Edit takes you to the Post editor. You can also reach the Post Edit screen by clicking on the title.
- Quick Edit provides inline access to your post metadata. For a step-by-step tutorial on using Quick Edit, go here: The WordPress Quick Edit Function
- Trash removes the post from the list 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 is displayed will depend on your post’s status.
Post status indicators next to the post title will tell you if posts have been saved as Draft, Pending, Password Protected, etc …
(Post Status indicator)
Post Author
The Post author is listed in the ‘Author’ column …
(Table of Posts – Post Author column)
If your website contains multiple authors, click on a specific author’s name …
(Author links are clickable)
This displays a list of all posts 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 lets you see the categories your posts have been filed under.
Click on a specific category …
(Post categories column)
And your Posts table filters and lists all posts containing that specific category …
(Posts filtered by categories)
Post Tags Column
This column lets you see the tags your posts have been filed under.
Click on any tag …
(Tags column)
And only posts filed under that tag will display in the Table of Posts …
(List of posts filtered by tags)
Comments
The column with the “comment bubble” lists the number of comments for each post. If comments have been added to your posts, the number of comments is displayed in the comment bubble next to each post.
To view post comments, click on the comment bubble …
(Clicking on the bubble lets you view comments)
If a post has pending comments, these will show next to the comment bubble for that post …
(Comments column – WordPress Table of Posts)
For approved comments, the number is displayed inside the post’s commenting graphic …
(WordPress Table of Posts: Post comments column)
Note: Clicking on the comments bubble opens up the Comments panel where you can moderate comments left by visitors …
(Moderate comments left on your posts by visitors and users in the Comments section)
Date Column
The ‘Date’ column shows the dates for posts as follows:
- The Published date for all published posts,
- The Last Modified date for all unpublished posts (e.g. draft posts), and
- The Scheduled date for all posts scheduled for publishing in the future …
(Date – WordPress Posts Table)
In addition to displaying posts using the default ‘List’ view, you can also display your posts in ‘Excerpt’ view …
(Excerpt View)
Displaying posts in Excerpt View is explained in the next section.
Posts Table – Screen Options
To view Table of Posts options, click the ‘Screen Options’ tab in the top right-hand corner of the screen …
(WordPress Posts area – ‘Screen Options’ tab)
The top section of the Posts screen will expand, revealing several options for configuring your Table of Posts …
(WordPress Posts: Screen Options – Table of Posts options)
Options are divided into the following sections
- Columns – This section allows you to enable/disable.
- Pagination – Enter the number of entries to display on your page
- View Mode – Specify whether you want items to display in ‘List View’ (default), or ‘Excerpt View’.
Remember to click ‘Apply’ to update your settings when you are done …
(WordPress Posts: Screen Options – Table of Posts options)
Table Of Posts – Sorting And Filtering
WordPress offers various options to filter and sort your posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following menu links:
(WordPress Post management screen – Post menu options)
- All – Clicking this link brings up all posts.
- Mine – The ‘Mine’ menu filter lists only your posts.
- Published – Clicking this menu filter brings up all posts set to ‘published’ status.
- Scheduled – Click on this menu filter to show all scheduled posts.
- Draft – Clicking this filter lists all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
- Pending – Clicking this link shows all pending posts. (Posts set as ‘pending’ need to be reviewed and approved by Editors or Administrators before publishing.)
- Private – Clicking this filter shows all private posts.
- Trash – The ‘Trash’ posts menu filter returns all deleted posts
Clicking on any of these links displays only the posts associated with that status in the Table of Posts …
(WordPress Post Management Screen – Click post menu links to filter posts by status)
Below the menu filter and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional filtering options:
Date Filter
The Posts table lets you filter posts by dates. By default, Show all dates is selected and all posts are displayed.
Select an option from the ‘All dates’ dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to display posts published or scheduled to publish within this date …
(Filtering Posts by Month)
Category Filter
The Posts table also lets you filter posts by categories. By default, All Categories is selected and all your posts are displayed.
Use the dropdown menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to display posts by category …
(Category Filter)
Use the Search Posts button to filter and display only posts that contain words or phases you’ve typed into the search field. This is useful if there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages …
(Search Posts function – WordPress Posts screen)
To remove the results of the search filter and view all posts again in the Table of Posts, click the ‘All’ link in the posts area above the table …
(Remove the results of the search filter 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 …
(Posts panel – 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.
This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.
Click below to keep reading:
How To Edit And Delete Posts In WordPress – Part Two
Related WordPress Tutorials And Articles
To learn more about using posts, refer to the articles and tutorials listed below:
- WordPress Posts & Pages
- How To Create A WP Post
- A Guide To The Inline Editor Of WordPress
- How To Schedule WordPress Blog Posts
- What Is A Sticky Post?
- WordPress Content Protection For Posts And Pages
- Web Traffic Blueprint Part 4 – How To Drive More Website Traffic For Your Business
- Changing A Post Author
- How To Configure WordPress Post Categories
- How To Set Up And Use WordPress Post Tags
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