WordPress Posts and Pages Guides

When starting with WordPress you might be confused by the differences between posts and pages.

What is a Post?

Posts are what you typically think of when you hear the term blog post. It is a piece of content that is usually timely in nature. When a visitor views a list of posts they are displayed in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent post published is shown first and others under it.

What is a Page?

A page is for static information that rarely changes such an About page or Contact page. Pages are not shown with posts and are usually linked to from navigation menus.

Remember posts are content that is timely in nature and pages are for static information.

The post and page listing page in WordPress are almost identical, as you can see below, and work in the same way.

Each post and page listing display the post or page title, the author, date created or published, and number of comments. The posts listing also contain the category and tags. Many plugins, such as Yoast SEO, will add additional columns with more information. You can add and remove columns from the Screen Options dropdown menu in the top right corner.

Posts and Pages are divided into multiple sections depending on its status

Published, Sticky, Scheduled, Draft, and Trash, which can be found at the top of the page. Again plugins may add more sections. These sections, along with the search function, allow users to easily find content. As you create more and more content, it can become cumbersome to scroll page by page for the post or page you are looking for.

Hover Menu

When you hover over the title of the post or page a menu will appear. This menu will allow you to edit, view, and send the post or page to the trash. See the picture below for an example.

Edit – When clicked will take you to the post or page edit screen, just like when you create a new post or page, where you can edit the content, add categories, set featured images, and so much more.

Quick Edit – This allows you to make changes to the post or page publish status, author, category, slug, title, and tags without opening the full post or page edit screen.

Trash – This will allow you to move the post or page to the trash area. After 30 days anything in the trash area will be permanently removed so use the Trash with caution.

View – This will allow you to view the post or page in a new window or tab as it will look on your website. This is helpful to get an accurate look at formatting.

Bulk Editing

You can make changes to multiple posts or pages at once using the bulk edit option. Simply select the posts or pages you wish to edit by clicking the box to the left of the title. Next from the Bulk Edit dropdown at the top of the page, choose Edit, and then click on the Apply button. The box below will appear.

The left side of the box will display which posts or pages you selected. If you wish to remove one of them just click the round X icon. On the right side of the box are the options you can change while using the bulk edit option.

For posts you can change the author, category, tags, comments (allow or disallow), post type format, pings (allow or disallow), and sticky (sticky or not sticky).

For pages you can change author, parent page, comments (allow or disallow), and status. When you have made all the changes you need to be sure to click on the update button in the right bottom corner to save the changes.

Create New or Edit Post or Page

When creating or editing a post or page you need to understand what blocks are and how they are used to format your content. Blocks represent the different types of data you can insert into your content. The blocks are broken down into categories as listed below.

Most Used Blocks Include:

Common Blocks Include:

Formatting Blocks Include:

Layout Blocks Include:

Widget Blocks Include:

Embed Blocks Include:

To add a block to your post or page click on the circle + icon on the top toolbar and then choose which block to add. To remove a block, select the block in your content you wish to remove and click on the three vertical dots that appear to the right and choose remove. You can also move the blocks around easily by clicking and dragging them or clicking on the up and down arrows to the left of the block.

Reusable Blocks – If you find yourself using the same data on multiple pages you can save the block and reuse it on other pages. No need to recreate it every single time. This works for posts too. If you create the reusable block when writing a post, you can then use that reusable block when writing a page as well.

Post, Page and Block Settings 

The post and page settings in the WordPress editor have changed extensively over the last few years. They are much more streamlined and appear more modern looking. No longer do you have separate sections on the right side and bottom of the post content area. The settings are now in a menu format to the right of the editor with the ability to move it out of the way if needed by simply clicking on the gear icon. This allows you to focus more on writing.

The top portion of the settings menu has two tabs – Document and Block. These tabs let you easily switch between settings. The Document tab allows you to edit and set options for the post or page such as category, featured image, scheduled date, etc. The Block tab allows you to edit and set options for each individual block you use such as image, paragraph, and lists.

Document Tab Settings

Status and Visibility

The settings for scheduling a post, setting the post or page status to draft, pending, or published, the post format, who can see the post or page, and the option to make a post stay on the front page are found here. If there is more than one author account on your WordPress install, the ability to change post author is here too.

Categories – Set or assign a new category for the post.

Tags – Assign tags for the post.

Featured Image – Assign the featured image for the post.

Excerpt – Write the excerpt for the post.

Discussion – Set your comments options.

Page Attributes (Pages Only) – Select the parent page and page template to use, if any. You can also select the order of the page. This will tell WordPress what order to display the pages in. For example if you have 3 pages, Home, About, and Contact. If you set the order of the About page to 1, then it will display first, such as About, Home, Contact. You probably will not use this option much.

Block Tab Settings

The settings available for each block will vary with each block. The most common block settings are listed below for your review.

Paragraph – You can easily set the text size, format the text with a drop cap, change the paragraph background and text color, and add additional css selectors.

Image – Set the alt text, image size, link settings, and any additional css selectors here.

Cover Image – Choose whether the image should be in a fixed position or not and adjust the background opacity which determines the transparency of the image.

Columns – Choose the number of columns needed.

Heading – Set the heading level to H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, or H6, and the alignment of the headline.

Keep in mind when writing or editing text a bar will pop up where you can perform basic formatting such as bolding, alignment, italics, and links.

Something you might notice missing is the ability to change the slug or permalink of a post or page while editing it. Don’t worry, it’s still there. Click on the title block and the option to change the permalink will appear. It is also a block under the Document tab.

The Top Toolbar

Above the editor lays a toolbar as shown in the image below that deals with the document as a whole.

Circle + Icon – Adds a block to your document.

Left Arrow Icon – Undo the step you just performed.

Right Arrow Icon – Redo the step you just performed.

Circle i Icon  – When you click on this icon you get some stats on your content. It will show you the number of words, headings, paragraphs, and blocks used. Helpful information if you are attempting to meet certain writing goals.

Save Draft – If you have not previously published the post or page yet, you have the option to save it as a draft. If the post or page has already been published this option will not appear on the toolbar.

Switch to Draft Button – Allows you to unpublish a previously published post or page.

Preview – View a preview of your content in a new tab or window as if it was published.

Publish – If the post or page has not yet been published the Publish button will appear allowing you to publish the content or schedule it for later.

Update – Save any changes made to your post or page.

Gear Icon – Shows or hides the settings menu on the right side of the editor.

3 Vertical Dots – Menu that allows you to switch between the visual and HTML editor, fix the formatting toolbar to the top (bold, italics, alignment, etc.), display tips when creating a new post, and to copy all the content.

Edit the HTML

Want to edit the HTML of a page or post directly? You can access the code editor by clicking on the three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner next to the gear icon. Alternatively, you can also use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Alt + M to switch between editors.

You can also edit the HTML on a per-block basis. When you select a block click on the 3 vertical dots that appear and choose the Edit as HTML option. This lets you edit just one section of your content in HTML.

If you need to quickly add just a HTML snippet, then simply use the Custom HTML block and add the HTML code there.