WordPress Posts (In-depth Guide)
You can access the Posts screen by choosing All Posts from the Posts widget in the sidebar
The Posts screen looks like this:
This screen functions exactly like the Pages screen with the following additions:
· Next to the Bulk Actions menu there are two filter options that allow you view posts according to either date or category. Simply choose your desired option from the drop down menu and click on the Filter button. This is useful if you have many posts in the system and gives you greater control over your work area.
· On the far right of the filter options there are two buttons allowing you to view posts in List View (the default setting) or Excerpt View. Excerpt View displays an excerpt of each post giving you more information about your content so you can make an accurate decision about the post you wish to edit. Next to it is the Total number of posts that you already created.
· In the list of posts that are available to edit you will also notice two additional columns, Categories and Tags. These will be explained in greater detail later on.
As in the Pages screen, clicking on the post title will take you to the Post screen as described in the next section. Clicking on the author will filter the posts in the list to posts written only by that author. Clicking on the category will filter the posts in the table to posts belonging only to that category. Clicking on a tag will filter the posts in the table to posts assigned that tag.
Edit Post
The Edit Post screen looks like this:
This screen functions exactly like the Edit Page screen with the following additions:
· All references to Page are now to Post
· In the Publish section under the Visibility setting there is an option to stick the post to the front page of the website
· Instead of Attributes you will find Format, Categories, Tags and Featured Image on the right hand side underneath the Publish section.
As in the Edit Pages screen, clicking on the post title will take you to the Post screen as described in the next section. Clicking on the author will filter the posts in the list to posts written only by that author. Clicking on the category will filter the posts in the table to posts belonging only to that category. Clicking on a tag will filter the posts in the table to posts assigned that tag.
The Excerpt
The Excerpt field is a summary of your post which may be used on your website to entice users to click through to read more. This is similar to splitting a page or post with the more tag, however the excerpt allows you to grab any section of the post and use it as a summary of the content, whereas the more tag just uses the content that comes before it. If you can not see the excerpt field then you must enable it in the screen options.
Send Trackbacks
This field allows you to notify other blogs that you may have referenced in your post of your content. For example: if you have quoted an article written on another blog in your post you can enter the address of the other blog in this field and they will be notified of your post. This is useful for building incoming links to your site. If you enter more than one web address (or URL) separate them with a space.
NB: You should consult your web developer or IT Department before using trackbacks.
Sticky Post
In the Publish section, under Visibility, there is an option to stick the post to the front page of the website. This means that this post is ranked as highly important and will always show on the front page of the website regardless of any other content being displayed. This functionality may or may not be utilized in the development of your site.
NB: You should consult your web developer or IT Department before using the sticky post function.
Format
Format, or sometimes called Post Format, allows setting a post as a certain format. Some example formats are standards, aside, gallery, link, status, image and quote. This will allow themes to style these posts according to format.
Setting a post format will change the way posts are being displayed into the site.
For example if you set your post to have aside format, when you view the list of your posts on your actual website you will notice titles are gone.
Once you set up your post to have a definite format option. You will notice its post format is indicated next to the title of your post.
NB: You should consult your web developer or IT Department before using format.
Categories
Content on your website is more than likely divided up into several categories relating to subject matter. For example: a financial planner’s website may be divided into the categories, "shares", "superannuation" and "property". Assigning a post to a category will determine where exactly on the website the post will be displayed.
To assign a post to a category, simply place a tick in the box next to the category name. You can assign a post to more than one category. If you do not assign a post to a category it will be assigned to the "Uncategorized" category by default.
To add a new category, click on the link that reads "+ Add New Category" and enter the name of the new category.
Tags
Tags allow you to assign one or more tags, or keywords, to a post. If your website has been developed to display tags they can help your users navigate to other posts containing similar information or keywords. For example: a post about catering for a wedding may contain the keywords “catering” and “wedding”. Clicking on the tag “wedding” may take the user to other posts assigned the tag “wedding” like booking a wedding photographer, or finding wedding cars.
To add a tag to a post, enter the tag in the Add new tag field and click on the Add button. The tag will appear below immediately with the heading Tags used on this post:
To remove a tag from a post, click on the “x” next to the tag in the list.
To choose from a list of the most widely used tags in the site, click on the link that reads “Choose from the most popular tags” and a list of tags will appear for you to choose from. Simply click on the tag(s) you want to use and they will automatically be linked to this post.
NB: You should consult your web developer or IT Department before using tags.
Quick Edit
Placing the mouse over a page or post title in the Edit Pages or Edit Posts screen gives you the option to Edit, Quick Edit, Delete or View the page or post.
The Quick Edit Page screen looks like this:
From this screen you can make quick changes to the page without editing the actual content of the page.
On the left hand side you can change the title, the slug, the date of publication, the author and the visibility, that is whether or not the page is password protected or private.
On the right hand side you can edit the page parent, the order of the page in the main menu, the template assigned to the page as well as allowing or disallowing comments and/or pings and finally the publication status of the page.
You can cancel your changes at anytime by clicking on the Cancel button or you can save your changes by clicking on the Update Page button.
The Quick Edit Post screen looks like this:
From this screen, you can make quick changes to the post without editing the actual content of the post.
On the left hand side you can change the title, the slug, the date of publication, the author and the visibility, that is whether or not the post is password protected or private.
On the right hand side you can edit the categories the post belongs to, the tags assigned to the post as well as allowing or disallowing comments and/or pings and finally the publication status of the post including whether or not the post is sticky.
You can cancel your changes at anytime by clicking on the Cancel button or you can save your changes by clicking on the Update Page button.
Trash A Post
Clicking on the Trash option under any page or post title will allow you to move that certain page or post in a Trash bin and you could confirm this action soon as a confirmation message shows above saying that your page or post has been moved to trash with an Undo link.
| Hint: Once a page or post has been moved to Trash, you can recover it back (see Next link below). |
Restore Or Delete A Post
If a Trash link exists, located next to the All link, you may want to click it to locate all the posts that you have deleted for the past 30 days.
Hover your mouse over to the title of the post that you want to delete or restore, and a sub menu of options will appear below.
Choose Restore to recover back your deleted post or choose Delete Permanently to delete the post forever.
| Caution: WordPress will empty the trash every 30 days. |
Post Revisions
What happens when you decide you need to go back and retrieve that version of the page you edited three days ago, or three weeks, or three months? On the edit post screen, there is a revisions box which lists a different version of the posts in the system. Click on the version of the post you want to review.
On the compare revisions screen, you can use the timeline slider to compare the changes of the post over time. You can also use the “next” and “previous” buttons to move through the timeline. The redbox on the left, indicates what was changed in the previous version and the greenbox on the right shows the new changes in the latest version.
If you want to compare the difference between two specific revisions, tick the compare revisions check box and position the two markers on the timeline to specify the revisions that you wish to compare. To restore the post to a previous version, untick the compare revisions check box, move the marker along the timeline to the revision you want and then click the “restore” revisions and click the update button to save your changes.
View
Clicking on the View option under a page or post title will take you to the page or post on your website so you can see how it appears to the rest of the world.
Add New Post
You can access the Add New Post screen by choosing Add New from the Posts widget in the sidebar
The Add New Post screen looks like this:
This screen functions are exactly like the Edit Post screen with the exception that the "Update Post" button is now the "Publish" button because the post has never been published. Once the post is published this button will become the "Update Post" button.
There is no content on a new post so you are free to be creative and design your own post from scratch.
Tags
You can access the Tags screen by choosing Tags from the Posts widget in the sidebar
The Tags screen looks like this:
Add New Tag section is at the top of the screen. To add a new tag enter the Tag name and Tag slug and click on the Add Tag button. The tag name can be the full name of the tag to be used, for example "wedding". The slug will be a search engine friendly version of the tag. If you do not enter the slug the system will automatically create one consisting of all lowercase words separated by a hyphen, for example "wedding ".
On the right of the screen is a table that lists all of the tags in the system. Clicking on the tag name will take you to the edit tag screen for that tag. Clicking on the number under posts will take to you to the Edit Post screen with a list of posts assigned with this tag.
Placing the mouse over the name of a tag in the list displays a menu of options as previously explained.
The Bulk Actions menu functions as previously explained.
Edit Tags
The Edit Tag screen looks like this:
Simply edit the tag name and tag slug and click on the Update Tag button to make your changes.
Quick Edit
Quick Edit allows you to edit the name and slug of the tag only.
Categories
You can access the Categories screen by choosing Categories from the Posts widget in the sidebar
The Categories screen looks like this:
Directly beneath the popular categories list is the Add a New Category section. Popular Categories are listed at the top of the screen. Clicking on a category in the list will take you to the Edit Categories screen, which is described in the next section.
To add a new category enter the Category Name and Category Slug, choose a Category Parent from the drop down list, enter the Description for the category and click on the Add Category button.
The category name can be the full name of the category to be used, for example "wedding". The slug will be a search engine friendly version of the category. If you do not enter the slug the system will automatically create one consisting of all lowercase words separated by a hyphen, for example "wedding ".
| Hint: Categories can have a hierarchy. For example, "Weddings" may be a parent category for the sub-categories of "catering", "photography" and "cars". If the category you are adding is a sub-category, choose the parent category from the drop down list. |
On the right of the screen is a table that lists all of the categories in the system. Clicking on the category name will take you to the edit category screen for that category. Clicking on the number under posts will take to you to the Edit Post screen with a list of posts assigned to this category.
Placing the mouse over the name of a category in the list displays a menu of options as previously explained.
The Bulk Actions menu functions as previously explained in the Edit Pages section
You do not have access rights to use the category to tag converter so just ignore this option.
Edit Category
The Edit Category screen looks like this:
Simply edit the category name, category slug, category parent and description and click on the Update Category button to make your changes.
Quick Edit
Quick Edit allows you to edit the name and slug of the category only.