How To Edit And Delete a WordPress Post

WordPress makes editing content and deleting posts a relatively simple and easy process.

In this tutorial you will learn how to edit and delete posts, how to use the features in the table for performing bulk post edits and deletions, and some useful, practical tips that will help you save time when using and editing posts.

To learn how to create a new WordPress post, see this tutorial.

How To Edit A Single WordPress Post

Watch the video below and then follow the step-by-step tutorials to learn how to edit your posts …

To edit a single post, log into your WP Admin area, and then click on Posts > All Posts…

This brings up the screen, which displays a table of all your posts.

This table includes posts that have already been published, ones that are scheduled for publishing, draft (not yet published) and pending ones (posts that need to be approved by an administrator before being published) …

(To learn more about the Table of Posts and all of its features, see the next section below.)

In the Posts screen, find the one you want to edit, then either click on the Title, or hover your mouse over the title to display the options menu and click on Edit…

The post you have selected will open up in the Edit Post screen …

The screenshot above shows some of the common areas of a post that you would typically want to edit:

Post Title – Change the title of your post here.
Content Area – Edit your post content here. You can add, edit or delete text, insert and delete images, videos and other media, etc … using the Visual Editor and/or the Text Editor.
Categories – Edit your post category/categories in this section by clicking on one or more category check boxes. You can also create a new Category for your post by clicking on the + Add New Category link (see example below).
Tags – Add or delete your post tags in this section. You can add new tags to your post by typing in your tags separated by commas into the Tag field and then clicking on the Add button (see example below).

Here is an example of adding a new Category to your post …

Note: WordPress Categories are covered in more detail in this tutorial

Here is an example of adding new Tags to your post …

Note: WordPress Tags are covered in more detail in this tutorial

Once you have finished editing your post click on Publish > Update to save your new changes …

Once your changes are saved, you can view your edited post by clicking on the “Post Updated View post” link (1) …

Note: You can also view your post while working in the Edit screen by clicking on the View Post button below the Post title (2), and preview any changes you make at any time by clicking on the Preview Changes button in the “Publish” box.

How To Edit And Delete a WordPress Post

Table of Posts

The table of posts lists all of your posts in a row …

Here are the main features of the Table

The table of posts displays your most recent posts at the top of the list …

They can be selected for bulk editing or processing by clicking on the checkbox next to each post …

Title Column – The Title of each Post is displayed as a clickable link. Clicking on the Title link lets you edit the Post. Hovering your mouse over the title also lets you edit and see other post options …

A bold text next to the Post Title will display if your Post has been saved as a Draft, Private, Pending, Sticky, or Password Protected Post …

Author – The author is displayed in Author column. If your site has multiple authors, then clicking on an author name will display all that are authored by that user in the Table of Posts …

Categories – This column displays all the Categories that your Posts have been assigned to …

Tags – This column displays all the Tags associated with each Post …

Comments – The column with the “comment bubble” displays the number of comments for each Post. If any Posts have comments, then the number of comments is displayed in the comment bubble for that Post.

How To Edit And Delete a WordPress Post

You can view Post comments by clicking on the comment bubble …

If a Post has any pending comments (i.e. comments that need to be approved by an administrator before they can be displayed), then a blue comment bubble will display for that Post …

Note: Clicking on the comment bubble brings up the “Comments Screen” and allows you to moderate comments (see this tutorial to learn How To Manage WordPress Comments).

Date – The Date column for each Post shows the “Published” Date for Published Posts, the “Last Modified” Date for unpublished Posts (e.g. Draft Posts), and the “Scheduled” Date for posts set to publish in the future …

In addition to displaying Posts using the default “List” View (1), the Table of Posts can also display Posts in “Excerpt View (2) …

How To Edit And Delete a WordPress Post

How To Edit and Delete A Single Post

Watch the video below and then follow the step-by-step tutorials to learn how to edit your posts …

To delete a single post, click on Posts > All Posts…

This brings up the Posts screen …

In the Posts screen, find the Post you want to delete, then hover your mouse over the post title to display the options menu and click on Trash…

Your Post will be moved to the Trash [ See (1) below].

Note: A Post can be restored to the Table of Posts by clicking on the Undo link [See (2) below] immediately after being sent to the trash …

To permanently delete a Post, click on the Trash link …

The contents of the Trash will display in the Table of Posts. Hover your mouse over the Title of the Post you want to permanently delete, and click on either the Restore link to restore the post, or the Delete Permanently link to delete completely.

Your Post has now been permanently deleted …

Posts – Filtering Options

WordPress offers a number of options to filter and display selected Posts.

Above the Table of Posts, you will see links such as All, Published, Scheduled, Draft, Pending, and Private displayed with the number of Posts assigned to that Status.

Clicking on any of these links displays only the Posts for that status in the Table of Posts …

Below this section, next to the Bulk Actions dropdown menu and Apply button, are two additional Filtering options:

Show all dates

Use this dropdown menu and then click the Filter button to select and display Posts by date …

By default, “Show all dates” is selected and all of your Posts are displayed.

View all categories

Use this dropdown menu and then click the Filter button to select and display Posts by category …

If you have a large number of posts spanning across many pages, you can use the Search Posts function inside the Screen to filter and display only the posts that contain the search words you have entered into the Search field…

To remove the “search” filter and view all Posts again, click on the All link at the top of your posts screen …

Bulk Editing And Deleting Posts

WordPress also allows you to edit and delete multiple Posts at once. This is useful if you are performing management or bulk administration tasks such as removing old or unwanted ones, or if you would like to make bulk changes to specific sections of multiple Posts.

Select the Posts that you want to bulk edit or delete from the Table of list. You can select multiple ones or one at a time by clicking on the checkbox next to each, or select all at once by clicking on the Main Checkbox column heading in the Table of Posts …

Once you have selected your Posts, choose either Edit or Move to Trash from the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu, and click the Apply button to begin processing your selection …

Bulk Editing Posts

If Edit is selected in the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu …

A number of “Bulk Edit” options similar to the WordPress Quick Edit feature are displayed below the Column headings section …

The “Bulk Edit” screen allows you to edit the following items for all selected posts:

Categories – Categories can be ADDED in bulk to Posts, but you cannot CHANGE or DELETE a Category for those Posts through the bulk editor feature.
Tags – Tags can be ADDED in bulk to Posts, but you cannot CHANGE or DELETE a Tag for those Posts through the bulk editor feature.
Author – Use the dropdown menu to change the Author for all selected Posts.
Comments – Use the dropdown menu to allow / not allow comments for all selected Posts.
Status – Use the dropdown menu to change the Status of all selected Posts to Published, Private, Pending Review, or Draft.
Format – Use the dropdown menu to change the Post Format of all selected Posts to Standard, Aside, Gallery, Link, Image, Quote, or Status. (Note: depending on your theme this option may not be available).
Pings – Use the dropdown menu to allow / not allow pinging for all selected Posts. If “Do not allow” pings is selected, no one can post pingbacks or trackbacks to your selected Posts. (See How To Configure Your WordPress Site Settings: Discussion Settings tutorial for more details)
Sticky – Use the dropdown menu to change all selected Posts to either sticky, or not sticky. (See this tutorial to learn How To Make A WordPress Post Sticky)

Click the Cancel button to cancel and exit the Bulk Edit screen, or click Update after making changes to save your new Post settings …

Bulk Deleting Posts

If Move to Trash is selected in the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu …

Your Posts will be moved to the Trash [see (2) above].

Note: Posts can be restored immediately after sending them to the trash by clicking on the Undo link [see (1) below] …

To permanently delete your Posts, click on the Trash link …

The contents of the Trash will display on your screen.

Select the Post(s) you want to permanently delete by ticking the checkboxes next to their Post title, then using the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu, select either the Restore options to restore your Posts, or the Delete Permanently link to completely delete all selected Posts … …

If you select Restore from the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu, your Posts will be restored to the Table of Posts from the Trash …

If you select Delete Permanentlyfrom the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu, your Posts will be permanently deleted …

Editing And Deleting Posts – Useful Tips

Tip #1: You can access the “Posts” section from your Dashboard by clicking on Posts inside the “Right Now” box …

Tip #2: You can set the number of posts to display in the Posts page by clicking on Screen Options at the top of the page, then entering a number of posts to display in the Posts field and clicking Apply …

Tip #3: The Screen Options area also allows you to display or hide certain features in the Table of Posts …

And in the Post Editor Screen when editing an individual Post …

Tip #4: If you change the Post Title significantly, it’s a good idea to also change the Permalink of your Post.

To edit the Post URL (also called the “post slug”) click the Permalink: Edit button below the Post title …

When editing the “post slug”, type all the letters in lowercase (use “a-z” and “0-9” only) and separate words with a hyphen (like-this-example). Click OK when finished to set your new permalink …

Note: When you change the post category and/or the Post slug, updates the Permalink URL, so that all instances of links using the Permalink structure will be updated to reflect your changes. (See this tutorial to learn more about using Permalinks to create search engine friendly URLs.)

Tip #5: You can click on a Category link to display a list of all Posts assigned to that Post Category only …

Clicking on a Post Category is like performing a “bulk” category filtering sort – the Category Filter box at the top of the Table will also change to display your selected Category.

To return the Table of Posts to your default list, do the following:

Select View all categories from the drop down menu
Click on the Filter button

Tip #6: Clicking on a Tag link in your Table of Posts …

Displays a list of all Posts that include your selected tag …

Tip #7: To display all Posts in Alphabetical or reverse Alphabetical order, click on “Title” in the column header …

Tip #8: If you need a short URL to use for sending visitors to your post, click on the Get Shortlink button below your Post title …

A pop-up window appears with a short URL that you can copy to your clipboard by pressing the OK button …

Shortlinks can also be obtained using various different plugins. This is covered in separate tutorials.

WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of where to start and progress to building a professional WordPress Site.