How To Use the Editor Last Updated July 2026 Following are tips for using the editor interface for creating and editing content on any Pages or Posts. On this page: Areas of the Screen Top Toolbar Settings Sidebar Context Menu Featured Image Status Link or Slug, URL Web Address Template Discussion Comments Post-Specific Settings Categories & Tags Display of Posts on the Landing Page Excerpt Featured Image for Post Listing Block Discussion Post Author Areas of the Screen The editor interface has three main sections identified in the screenshot below: The Top Toolbar contains administration links, including a toggle for turning on the Settings Sidebar which displays 2 tabs with important configurations. Learn about these areas of the screen below then learn how to create and edit content in the Content Area Workspace. Top Toolbar The top toolbar contains administration links for the Page or Post. You can hover over each element for a tooltip description. On the left-hand side – View Pages/Posts takes you to the dashboard list of all your Pages or Posts. If there are unsaved changes, it will prompt you to save the changes or leave the post or page. Block Inserter toggles a list of all available blocks and media. Undo and Redo lets you undo or redo your last action. Document Overview includes a list view of all the blocks on the post/page and an outline view that shows details including the character and word count, estimated time to read, the number of paragraphs and blocks and the page/post headings. On the right-hand side – There are two buttons that only display when you first create a page: Save Draft – after the page or post is published, you can change the status in the Settings panel. Publish – once you’re ready for your page to go live. Other buttons on the right-hand side: View Page/Post lets you view how your post/page looks on the live site. View displays what the page looks like on desktop, tablet or mobile. Genesis lets you edit advanced site wide configurations that should not be required for editing content. Settings Sidebar display two important tabs with configurations: One for the Page/Post settings that you can read about below. The other tab contains settings for specific Blocks used in the Content Area Workspace to create and edit content. Save – make sure you save your changes after you’re done. Options opens up more advanced options that should not be required for editing content. Settings Sidebar If it’s not already visible, click the Sidebar Icon to display the following settings for Posts and Pages. The options you see are a little different for Posts, Pages and for new or existing content. Click the blue text to make changes. Context Menu Immediately under the tabs in the sidebar menu is the name of the page with a context menu next to it. The context menu is the three vertical dots. View – if you click view it will open the public facing page or post in a new tab Rename will change the Title. You can use any words or phrases. Avoid using the same title twice as that will cause confusion and result in poor Serach Engine Optimization (SEO). Order – doesn’t clearly have a purpose in our system but may help with Posts that have the same publish dates. Trash – Remove a page to the trash. Learn more about Deleting a Page or Post Featured Image The Featured Image will be used for search results and social media previews. It is optional but can help improve search engine optimization (SEO). It is also used for adding an image to a Post listing block. Status Public content will be visible to all website visitors once published. Password Protected content is published to all, but visitors must know the password to view the page content. Private content is visible only to you (and other editors or administrators of your site). For Posts, you also have the option to pin the post to the top of the blog. To schedule the content for publication at a future time or date, click the link next to Publish. It can also be back-dated. Link/Slug The URL is generated from the Title. Non-alpha-numeric characters are stripped and a dash is put between each word. You can manually change the URL by clicking the page link. However, it’s not recommended that you edit the URL once content has already been published. Discussion Comments Turning on comments is not recommended, especially for Pages. Please contact the College Web team if you’re interested in enabling comments. Publish/Save Button Publishes your content or saves your edits. Parent For Pages: click the link next to Parent to select an existing Page to be the “Parent” of your new page. Hierarchically organizing your pages has several usability and administrative benefits: WordPress will appropriately organize the All Pages screen, URL Web addresses will reflect the hierarchy and, if you are using the default menu functionality, selecting a parent will place your page appropriately in the menu navigation. AddToAny Check the box to enable social media sharing buttons on a page. Post-Specific Settings In addition to the above settings, there are a few extra options for Posts, including the ability to add categories or tags, ways to customize it for the News or Blog landing page, turning on comments and showing details about the author. Read more about these features below. Display of Posts on a Landing Page The News or Blog landing page must be set-up by the COFA Web team. There are a number of choices that the web team will discuss with you, including how many posts to show on the landing page before pagination is added. By default the landing page will include the full content of each Post but, if you desire, it can be set-up to show a teaser excerpt and feature image instead. Once set-up, you will need to follow the below instructions. Excerpt If you prefer not to display the full content of your Post on your Blog or News landing page, you can have the COFA Web team enable Excerpts. In the Post Settings, click “Add an excerpt” and write a one to two sentence description of the post as a “teaser” to entice readers. If the excerpt is empty, WordPress automatically creates an excerpt using the first 55 words of the post followed by the ‘read more’ link. Featured Image for Post Listing Block The Featured Image will be used for search results and social media previews. It is optional unless you are using them for a Post listing block. You can add a featured image to appear below your post’s title header, just like in the example below. To do this, click the Featured Image button in the Page Settings, then choose an image from your media library or upload a new one. Rectangular images work best, and don’t forget to add alternate text and follow image optimization guidelines. Pin Status for Posts For Posts, you also have the option to pin the post to the top of the blog. Discussion Comments This area of the screen provides options to allow comments or allow trackbacks and pingbacks. Trackbacks and pingbacks are a method to notify other websites of updated content on your Blog. The WordPress Codex provides a summary of how trackbacks and pingbacks work. Sites are usually set-up not to allow comments by default. Post Author A list of content contributors that you can select to attribute as the post author. This section only shows if you have multiple content contributors to your site. Categories & Tags Categories and Tags have to be enabled and configured before you can use them. Inform the COFA Web team if you would like to enable Tags or Categories. It is recommended to have no more than 7-10 categories. Readers can browse specific Categories to see all Posts in the Category. To add a new Category, click the “Add Category” link in this section. Manage your Categories by going to in the left column menu under Posts > Categories. Posts with similar Tags are linked together when a user clicks one of the Tags. Add new Tags to the post by typing the Tag into the box and hitting the Enter key.
