Hidden WordPress Features

1- Post/Page Screen Options:

We’ll get started with what is in fact six helpful features in one.

There is a lot more functionality in the WordPress Post/Page screens than you may be aware of. You are no doubt familiar with the standard widgets (which you can see ticked in the screenshot above), but you have the option to add more by hitting the “Screen Options” tab at the top of the page.

The Excerpt widget allows you to create a custom excerpt for your post. Excerpts are extremely important for crafting a blog that converts well – we are going to cover that topic soon. Send Trackbacks does exactly what it says – allows you to send trackbacks to blogs that you have linked to in the content of your post. Custom Fields allows you to set up unique taxonomies – this was a feature that a CMS of WordPress’ calibre was crying out for before its inclusion, and is ready and waiting for you.

Discussion allows you to set your preferences for comments, trackbacks and pingbacks for that post specifically. If you write a particular post that you don’t want your visitors to comment on, you can just uncheck “Allow comments” in this widget.

Comments reveals the comments that have been made on that particular post. Although it may not seem the case, this actually has a particularly useful application. If you run a comment-heavy blog, it can be all too easy to lose track of the context of comments when you manage them from the dashboard. By responding to comments on a post-by-post basis, you can focus on the topic at hand without distraction.

Slug gets a mention because it is present as a widget that you can click on the in the Screen Options tab, but it offers no use above that of the permalink field near the top of your screen. Finally, there is the Author widget, which allows you to change the author of the post in question. This can be handy if for instance posts were researched by one person, and written by another. Before publishing the post, the author would want to change the Author name to his or her own (as opposed to the researcher’s).

Please note that some of these options are post/page specific.