Hey there, WordPress user! Did you know that WordPress powers over 40% of the entire web? That‘s a testament to the incredible versatility and user-friendliness of the platform we know and love.
But here‘s the thing: with so many features built into WordPress core, it‘s easy for some of the most useful ones to fly under the radar. Today, I want to shine a spotlight on ten awesome WordPress features that you might not be using to their full potential.
These aren‘t flashy new plugins or themes – these are powerful features baked right into WordPress itself. Features that can take your workflows and your website to the next level.
If you‘re ready to get the most out of WordPress and work smarter, not harder, then read on! Your mind is about to be blown.
1. Screen Options
First up, let‘s talk about Screen Options. At the top of nearly every page in the WordPress admin dashboard, you‘ll see a Screen Options tab. Go ahead and click on that bad boy.
Bam! You‘re now looking at a hidden menu that lets you customize exactly what information and interface elements appear on the current page.
Want to hide a certain meta box on the post editor or rearrange the columns on the Posts screen? Screen Options has you covered. You can declutter the interface and focus only on the tools and data you need at the moment.
Fun fact: according to WordPress.org, the Screen Options feature was first introduced way back in WordPress version 2.8. And yet, many users still don‘t take advantage of it!
2. Dashboard Customization
In that same vein, did you know you can customize the WordPress dashboard itself to perfectly suit your workflow? Using the Screen Options tab at the top of the dashboard, you can choose which widgets to show or hide.
But you can go even further and rearrange the layout by dragging and dropping the widgets. Put the stuff you use the most at the top and tuck the less important widgets out of the way at the bottom.
The dashboard is like your WordPress command center, so why not take a few minutes to optimize it? You‘ll thank yourself later when you‘re able to navigate to the right tools and info without thinking twice.
3. Paste URLs to Create Links
Here‘s a quick one that I see many bloggers overlooking. When you‘re writing a post and you want to link to an external resource, you don‘t actually have to use the link button in the toolbar. Instead, simply highlight the text you want to link, copy the URL to your clipboard, and paste it right over the highlighted text.
Voila! WordPress will automagically detect the URL and convert the text into a link. No buttons, no popups, no problem. It seems like a minor thing, but when you‘re in the flow of writing, every second counts!
4. Accessibility Mode for Widgets
The WordPress widgets screen uses a slick drag-and-drop interface that makes building sidebars a snap. But for some users with limited dexterity, dragging and dropping can be a challenge.
Enter WordPress‘ accessibility mode for widgets, which lets you add and arrange widgets without any dragging required. Just click the Enable accessibility mode link at the top of the widgets screen to toggle it on.
With accessibility mode active, widgets are added via dropdown menus and Add buttons, no mouse gymnastics needed. It‘s a small touch, but an important one that makes WordPress more inclusive.
5. Live Theme Previews
Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: you find a new WordPress theme that looks perfect for your site. You install it, activate it, and then…your heart sinks. Your content looks nothing like the theme demo and now you‘re stuck with a site that‘s a hot mess.
That‘s where the live theme preview feature comes to the rescue! Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, you can actually see what your content will look like with a new theme before making it live.
Just head to the Themes screen, hover over the theme thumbnail, and click the Live Preview button.
The WordPress Customizer will open, but instead of showing your current active theme, it will load the previewed theme. You can navigate around your site, play with the Customizer options, and get a pixel-perfect idea of how the theme will look.
If you like what you see, you can activate the theme right from there. Otherwise, no one but you will know you even tested it. Pretty neat, right?
6. Built-in Image Editor
Did you know WordPress has a basic image editor built right into the Media Library? Seriously, you might never need to fire up Photoshop again!
When you open an image from the Media Library, you‘ll see an Edit Image button below the preview. Click that and you‘ll be taken to the Image Editor screen.
From here, you can perform essential edits like rotating, flipping, and cropping the image. You can even scale the image to an exact pixel width and height.
No, it‘s not going to replace Photoshop for heavy image manipulation. But for the basic edits that make up 90% of bloggers‘ image prep tasks, the built-in editor is more than up to the job.
7. Post Pagination
Ever written a post so epically long that you wondered if anyone would actually scroll through the whole thing? Yeah, me too. Fortunately, WordPress has a built-in way to split posts across multiple pages.
It‘s called the Page Break block, and you can find it by clicking the Add Block button and searching for "page break". Alternatively, if you‘re using the Classic Editor, you can click the Insert Page Break button in the toolbar.
When you insert a Page Break block, WordPress will automatically split your post into pages right at that spot. Readers will see handy pagination links to navigate between the pages.
It‘s a simple way to boost the readability of long-form content – no plugins or custom code required.
8. Auto-Embeds
Embedding tweets, YouTube videos, and other content from third-party sites is a common task for bloggers. And while it‘s not too difficult to track down the embed code, did you know that WordPress can handle the embedding for you in many cases?
It‘s true! WordPress has an auto-embed feature that turns pasted URLs into embedded content. As of WordPress 5.4, over 40 sites are supported. Just paste the URL into your post editor on a blank line:
…and WordPress will automatically fetch the embed code and render a live preview right there in the editor:
No more copying and pasting lengthy embed codes. WordPress handles the heavy lifting so you can get back to writing!
9. Hidden Options Page
If you‘re the curious type who likes to peek behind the curtain, you might get a kick out of WordPress‘ hidden options page. This is a power user‘s playground, full of advanced settings and tweaks.
You can access it by adding /wp-admin/options.php to the end of your site‘s URL, like so:
https://yoursite.com/wp-admin/options.phpOn this screen, you‘ll find dozens of settings that can be changed to modify WordPress‘ default behavior. Many of these options are also exposed elsewhere in the admin dashboard, but some are exclusive to the options page.
Fair warning, though: tread carefully in the options page! Some of these settings can break functionality if misconfigured, so it‘s best to make changes only if you‘re absolutely sure what you‘re doing.
10. Markdown & Keyboard Shortcuts
Last but certainly not least, let‘s talk about writing efficiency. WordPress has not one, but two awesome features to help you write your posts faster.
First up, Markdown formatting. Markdown is a lightweight markup language that many writers swear by. With Markdown, you can format your posts using simple, plain text shortcuts.
For instance, wrapping text with double asterisks (**bold**) will make it bold. Starting a line with a hash (# Heading 1) will turn it into an H1 heading. You get the idea!
WordPress has support for Markdown baked right in. Just write your posts using Markdown formatting and WordPress will automatically convert it to the appropriate HTML when it‘s published.
On top of that, WordPress has a variety of handy keyboard shortcuts that can save you from reaching for the mouse while writing.
For example, you can select text and hit Ctrl+B (or Command+B on a Mac) to make it bold. Ctrl+K will turn the selected text into a link. Alt+Shift+W will toggle a preview of the post as it will look when published.
Here‘s a quick reference table with some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts:
| Windows/Linux | Mac | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl+B | ⌘B | Bold |
| Ctrl+I | ⌘I | Italic |
| Ctrl+K | ⌘K | Insert link |
| Alt+Shift+L | ⌃⌥L | Align left |
| Alt+Shift+C | ⌃⌥C | Align center |
| Alt+Shift+R | ⌃⌥R | Align right |
| Alt+Shift+W | ⌃⌥W | Toggle preview |
For the full list of shortcuts, check out the WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts documentation. But for most users, mastering just a handful of the common shortcuts can make writing in WordPress a much breezier experience.
Honorable Mentions
We‘ve covered a lot of ground in this post, but there are still a few awesome WordPress features that deserve at least a quick shoutout:
- Post Revisions – WordPress automatically saves revisions of your posts as you edit them. If you ever need to roll back to an earlier version, just browse the revisions and restore the one you want.
- Distraction-Free Writing – When you really need to focus on your words, toggle the distraction-free writing mode to remove all unnecessary UI elements from the screen.
- Featured Images – WordPress lets you designate a featured image for each post. Many themes will automatically use this as a thumbnail on blog index pages and social shares.
- Automatic Updates – WordPress can update itself with important security and maintenance releases. It will even notify you when it does!
- XML Sitemaps – WordPress generates a sitemap of all your content in the XML format preferred by search engines, making it easy to boost your SEO.
Whew, that was a whirlwind tour! But hopefully you discovered at least one or two awesome WordPress features that you weren‘t using before.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it, folks. Ten (plus!) amazing WordPress features that were hiding in plain sight. I hope you‘re inspired to dive in and take your WordPress game to the next level.
As powerful as WordPress is out of the box, it‘s easy to get stuck in a rut of using the same basic features over and over. But with a little curiosity and experimentation, you might just find that the perfect functionality was waiting there in WordPress core all along.
Now if you‘ll excuse me, I‘m off to play with all these awesome hidden features myself. Happy WordPressing!
