*** 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:
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In other articles and tutorials, we explain the main difference between a WordPress Post and a WordPress Page and show you how to create a new WordPress post.
In WordPress, editing and deleting posts is simple.
In this tutorial, you will learn about editing and deleting single and multiple posts, how to use the built-in features of the WordPress Posts Table for performing individual and bulk post edits and deletions and provides additional tips that will help you save time using WordPress.
Tutorial content:
- The WordPress Table Of Posts Explained
- Table of Posts – Screen Options
- WordPress Table Of Posts – Filtering Posts
- How To Edit Posts In WordPress
- How To Edit Single WordPress Posts
- Editing Bulk Posts
- Deleting WordPress Posts
- How To Delete A Single Post
- How To Delete Bulk Posts
- Editing And Deleting Posts – Additional Tips And Information
Accessing The Posts Section
Log into your WordPress dashboard, then go to the navigation menu and select Posts > All Posts …
(Posts – All Posts)
This brings you to the Posts section …
(Posts screen)
In this section, you can add, edit, and delete posts …
(Add, edit, and delete posts in the WordPress Posts page)
We have written a detailed tutorial on adding a new post in WordPress here: Creating A Post In WordPress
WordPress Post Management Screen
The Table of Posts includes posts that have already been published, posts scheduled for publishing, private posts, sticky posts, posts that are yet to be published, and pending posts (posts that need to be approved by an administrator or editor before being published).
Let’s go through some of the main features of the Table of Posts:
The WordPress Table of Posts lists all of your posts in a row listed in reverse chronological order …
(Post dates column)
You can select checkboxes in the Table of Posts to bulk edit posts (see Part 2 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 – Column Sections
Title
The title of each post is displayed in this column as a clickable link. Click on the post title link to edit the post …
(Posts Table – Title column)
Hover your mouse over the post title access other post actions …
(Hover over post title area to view options)
You can perform the following actions:
- Edit takes you to the Post editor. You can also reach the Post Edit area by clicking on the title of the post.
- Quick Edit gives you access to your post metadata. We have written a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial on how to use Quick Edit here: How To Use The WordPress Inline Editor To Edit Your Posts And Pages
- Trash removes a post from the Table of Posts and places it in the trash. From there you can permanently delete it.
- Preview shows you what your draft post will look like when it is published. ‘View’ will take you to your live site to view the post. Which link displays here depends on your posts’ status.
Indicators next to title of your posts will tell you if posts have been saved as Draft, Private, Password Protected Post, etc …
(Post Status indicator)
Post Author
Posts authors are displayed in the ‘Author’ column …
(Table of Posts – Post Author)
If your website allows multiple authors to publish content, click on a specific author’s name …
(Post author column)
This displays a list of all the posts that have been authored by the user …
(List of all posts authored by a user)
Categories
This column lists the categories that your posts have been published (or scheduled to publish under).
Click on a specific category inside the column …
(Categories)
And all posts filed under that category will display in your Posts table …
(Posts sorted by categories)
Post Tags Column
This column displays the tags associated with each post.
Click on any tag in this column …
(Tags column)
And all posts filed under that tag will show up in the Table of Posts …
(Posts listed by tags)
Comments
The column with the “commenting bubble” displays the number of comments for your posts. The number of comments added to posts will appear in the comment bubble next to the post.
To view the comments, click on the comment bubble …
(View post comments simply by clicking on the bubble icon)
If any posts have comments that need to be approved by an administrator before they can be made public, these will show next to the comment bubble for that post …
(Comments)
For approved comments, the number displays inside the post’s commenting icon …
(Table of Posts: Comments column – Approved comments)
Note: Clicking on the comments bubble opens up the Comments section where you can manage comments …
(Moderate comments left by visitors in the Comments screen)
Post Date
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 at a future date …
(Date)
As well as listing posts using the default ‘List’ view, you can also display posts in ‘Excerpt’ view …
(Post Excerpt View – WordPress Table of Posts)
To display posts in the Table of Posts in Excerpt view, see the section below.
Table of Posts – Screen Options
To view Table of Posts options, click on the ‘Screen Options’ tab near the top right-hand corner of the screen …
(Posts Table – ‘Screen Options’)
The top section of your screen will expand, revealing a number of 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 each page of your Table of Posts. For example, “75”.
- 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 …
(WordPress Posts: Screen Options – Table of Posts options)
Table Of Posts – Filtering Posts
WordPress provides various options and menu links to filter and sort selected posts. Depending on the status of your posts, you will see the following links and the existing number of posts assigned to that status:
(WordPress Post management screen – Menu filters)
- All – Clicking this link lists all posts.
- Mine – Click on this link to bring up a list of only posts authored by you.
- Published – Click on this menu filter to list all posts set to ‘published’ status.
- Scheduled – Clicking this menu link displays all scheduled posts.
- Draft – Clicking this link lists all posts set to ‘draft’ status.
- Pending – Click on this filter to list all pending posts. (Posts set as ‘pending’ need to be reviewed and approved by Editors or Administrators before publishing.)
- Private – Click on this filter to list all private posts.
- Trash – Clicking this link shows all posts set to ‘trash’ status
Click on the post menu links to view by status …
(WordPress Post Management Screen – Click menu links to view posts by status)
Below the post menu filter and next to the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop menu and ‘Apply’ button are two additional filtering options:
Date Filter
In the Table of Posts, you can filter posts by months. Show all dates is selected by default and all posts are displayed.
Use the drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button to select and display posts by date …
(Filter by Month)
View Posts By Category
In the Table of Posts, you can also filter posts by categories. By default, All Categories is selected and displays all of your posts.
To display posts assigned to a particular category, select a specific category from the Posts > ‘All Categories’ drop menu and click the ‘Filter’ button …
(Post Filter – All Categories)
Use the Search function to filter and display only posts containing words or phases entered into the search field. This is useful if there are many posts spanning across many Post screen pages …
(Search Posts button)
To remove the results of the search filter and view all posts again in the Table of Posts, click the ‘All’ posts filter above the table …
(Click ’All’ 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 …
(Posts page – Table of Posts)
Next Step …
Now that you have a better understanding of all the functions of the Table of Posts, the next step is to learn how to edit and delete your posts in WordPress.
This is the end of section one of this tutorial.
To continue reading, click on the link below:
Editing And Deleting WordPress Posts – Part Two
Related Articles And Tutorials
The articles and tutorials below will help to improve your understanding of the features discussed above and how to use WordPress posts:
- WordPress Pages Vs Posts
- How To Create A New WP Post
- How To Use The Inline Editor In WordPress To Edit Your Pages And Posts
- How To Schedule WordPress Blog Posts
- Make Posts Sticky
- WordPress Content Protection For Posts And Pages
- Web Site Traffic Blueprint Part Four – How To Create An Automated Traffic Generating Machine With WordPress
- Reassigning A Post To Other Authors
- How To Add, Edit, And Delete Post Categories In WordPress
- Configuring Tags
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com