There are some “hidden” features of WordPress you might not have heard of before. During her speech at WordCamp Toronto, WordPress aficionado Michelle Ames touched on a few of these lesser known functions.

1. 8 “Hidden” Features on
WordPress

2. Overview
During her speech at WordCamp Toronto, WordPress aficionado Michelle Ames touched
on a few of these lesser known functions.
“WordPress really hasn’t hidden everything. It’s just a matter of the fact that we don’t know
there’s all these great features,” said Ames.
Let’s take a look at eight different features you might have not heard of before, and how
they can help enable you to become better at WordPress.

3. 1. Screen Options
Screen Options can extend the functionality
of certain admin pages. Within the admin
section, scroll all the way to the upper right-
hand corner and you’ll find Screen Options
just below the “Howdy ‘your name'”
message.
Using Screen Options gives you the ability
to toggle on and off different features of
specific admin pages, including pages,
posts, comments, widgets, menu, plugins,
and more. Check it out to see just how
much you can extend or minimize the
functionality of your WordPress workspace.

4. 2. Help
Located right next to screen options,
you can use Help before googling the
question at hand. Depending on which
admin page you’re on, the help
guidelines will differ.
For instance, if you’re on the post
editor page, help options will look like
the image to the left. As you can see,
the help function is a great way to dig
deeper into certain admin pages. You
might learn some things you weren’t
familiar with before, or that wouldn’t
be as easy to find elsewhere.

5. 3. Post and Page Options
If you’re new to blogging on WordPress, you might have
overlooked Post Options and Page Options, which are
found in the right panel of the post editor or page editor.
Here are some specific functions you should be aware of:
● You can use Visibility to make your posts public or only
available to a specific audience (they’ll need a password
to access it).
● Making a post Sticky will enable it to show up first, even
after new blog posts are created.
● You can also change the Publication Date of a post.
Changing the publication of a blog post will change its
order.
● If you happen to need to go back to an older version of
the post (say your internet loses connection or you lose
your work), use Revisions. Every time you save a draft, a
revision will be made. (If you’re on the WP Engine
platform, see here for how to enable/disable Revisions.)

6. 4. Editor Options
Have you ever wondered what certain buttons do
within the post editor? Some symbols are cryptic
from a glance, but here’s a visual explanation of
those lesser known features within the editor.
In addition, if you’re HTML-savvy you can make
adjustments to your post within Text Editing
mode. For instance, if you want to embed a video,
this is where you’d paste the code.

7. 5. Quick Edit
In a rush to edit a post? While
Quick Edit doesn’t necessarily
let you edit the copy of a post,
you can make changes to
certain aspects, including Title,
Slug, Date, Author, Categories,
and so on.
Using Quick Edit along with
customized Screen Options
will allow you to make mass
edits to posts quicker.

8. 6. “Hidden” Secret Options Panel
You can access this secret spot by going to:
http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/o
ptions.php.
But do take caution!
Making changes here can get yourself in a lot of
trouble. Only make changes if it’s a last resort.

9. 7. Misc. Shortcuts
Aside from accessing keyboard shortcuts
within the post editor menu bar (see No.4),
you can also type in certain shortcuts to
magically turn them into a type of
formatting.
To the left are some shortcuts you can type
into your Visual Editor. For instance, typing
“##Heading2” will automatically create an
H2 title. Just press enter after you type it
and voilà!

10. 8. Favoriting Plugins
When logged into your WordPress.org account, you have
the ability to favorite a plugin. This is especially useful as
you’re researching plugins to install, but don’t necessarily
want to install them yet (because installing all the plugins is
never a good idea–it causes site bloat and potential security
vulnerabilities).
If you see a plugin you might want to install, favorite it. That
way you can do your research and install it later on if you do
decide you want it installed. After you favorite a plugin, it’ll
be added to your Favorites list with the Plugin admin page,
as well as the Plugin Directory.