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WordPress does a lot of things! It helps you build features, write and edit content, manage all that information, and even interact with visitors through comments. When you’re starting to learn WordPress, there’s so much to take in! Oftentimes, some of the nicest small features—the ones that either improve the interface or save you time—get lost in the shuffle. So here are my favorites, each provided with a real visual walk-through of the tip.

In a first for my blog, I’ve created GIFs to show you how each feature actually works! Click any image and you’ll get a quick walk-through of the tip.

Easy Embed

Let’s start with a bang. This is one of my favorite features of WordPress and it’s gotten better over time. Whenever you want to feature content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and a whole host of other sites, just paste the URL in your post!

Full size Easy Embed GIF

14 April 2016 Update: This now also works for WordPress web pages! As long as your site and the site you want to embed use WordPress 4.4 or higher, pasting a page’s link will usually generate an embedded preview of the page!

SHIFT + ENTER

Sometimes, you really need a single line break in the editor.

Full size SHIFT + ENTER GIF

Paste a URL to get a Link

Added in a recent version of WordPress, this tip will save you some time when you want to add a link.

Full Size Paste a URL GIF

Click Admin Bar to Scroll to Top

Any time you’re logged in to WordPress, there’s a quick way to get back to the top of the page. This works in the admin or the front-end!

Full size Scroll to Top GIF

Schedule Posts

Want to write now and publish later? There’s an easy way to do that!

Full size Schedule Posts GIF

Screen Options

Most pages in the WordPress admin have information you don’t need. Plugins can add stuff too, making this problem even worse! Customize your admin with the underappreciated “Screen Options” settings. I most commonly use these options on “All Posts,” “All Pages,” “Dashboard,” and “Appearance > Menus.”

Full size Screen Options GIF

Bulk Edit

Need to categorize 10 posts, tag 17 more, and turn off comments everywhere? Bulk Edit to the rescue! This pairs nicely with the “Number of items per page:” setting in Screen Options (see above).

Full size Bulk Edit GIF

NEW! WordPress 4.3 Formatting “Autocompletions”

Mentioned in another recent post, I love this new formatting feature in the WordPress editor:

14 April 2016 Update: In addition to Headings (“## Heading 2”), blockquotes (“> my quote”), and lists (“-” or “1.”), WordPress 4.5 added horizontal rules (“—“) and code (“`code`”)

 

Colophon: The Tech in This Post

I’ve been using LICEcap a lot recently to create short animated GIFs to share on social media and send to clients as documentation. Thanks to WPTavern.com for the tip.

But can you imagine focusing on one of these GIFs while all the others are playing? I can’t either. To handle that issue, I tried using the WP GIF Player plugin, and it’s great! It takes care of the click-to-play function and also speeds up the first page load since it doesn’t load all the GIFs at once, instead grabbing an autogenerated stillframe.