Have You Set Your WordPress Screen Options?

One of the first things I do when I set up a new site or train a client on how to use theirs is to set the Screen Options.

Almost every page on your dashboard offers screen options. You will find them on the top right hand side of each page and they look like this:

If you click the little DOWN arrow, it will open up the Screen Options for the page you are on.

Edit Posts and Edit Pages

For example, if you are adding or editing a post, you will see something like this.

I say “see something like this” because depending on what theme you are using and what plugins you have loaded, some of the items you see on my list may not be there and you might have some different ones.

TIP: Actually, this is a cautionary tip, leave the columns set at 2. If you change them to one, you will have to drag and drop things back into the second column which is REALLY a pain! This is true for ALL screen option pages.

I usually just click on everything (except columns!). Once you have done this, just click the Screen Options UP arrow and that will close the options screen. WordPress will remember your options moving forward.

Edit Page has screen options that are very much the same as Edit Posts above.

 

Here are some more Screen Options you will find in WordPress.

All Post and All Pages

Both your All Posts and All Pages screens have options.

TIP: The default setting for Posts and Pages is 20 show only 20 per screen. When this happens, you have to go to page 2 of either to find the Post or Page you are looking for. I set mine to 200. Be sure you click Apply! This will save you lots of time when looking for a Post or a Page that needs an edit!

 

Dashboard

 

Users

 

Menus

 

TIP: Be sure you turn on Link Target. Suppose you wanted to add a menu item to your navigation bar that you wanted to link to another site. As discussed in How To Enter Links In A WordPress Post, you really should open that link up in a new window. This will allow you to do that.

So, there you have it. WordPress Screen Options 101 🙂

Let me know if you have any questions at all by asking it in the comments below. If you have other tips, please share!