Overview
In addition to editing individual page content for your Dornsife website, you may need to manage your overall pages. This guide looks at how to organize your page list (which WordPress refers to as the Pages Screen), edit page settings (which WordPress refers to as attributes), and use features such as cloning or republishing a page.
Need to edit content?
If you're trying to edit the content on a page, refer to the following guide:
Need to edit the website menu?
Organizing your page list does not change how pages are listed in your website menu. To manage the website menu:
Viewing the page list
To view your website's page list, click Pages in the left menu.
Filtering and sorting the page list
To quickly find specific pages, you can use the options at the top of the list:
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View: Narrow down the list by viewing just the pages you authored (Mine), or by page status, including published or draft pages
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Filter: Filter for pages with a specific SEO and/or readability score
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Sort: Click the column headers to sort alphabetically or chronologically
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Search: Use the search bar to search by page title
Editing page settings
Instead of opening pages in the editor, you can quickly edit their settings on the page list, including:
- Basic settings: Title, Slug, Author, Status
- More advanced settings: Parent, Order, Password or Private
- We recommend not editing these settings from the page list: Date, Template, Allow Comments
Edit settings for a single page
Hover over the page title and select Quick Edit. Then, make your changes and click Update.
Edit settings for multiple pages at a time
Quick guide
- Select each page by selecting the checkbox to the left of its title.
- At the top or bottom of the list, click Bulk actions.
- Select Edit, and click Apply.
- Make your edits, and click Update.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Select each page by selecting the checkbox to the left of its title.
- At the top or bottom of the list, click Bulk actions.
- Select Edit, and click Apply.
- Make your edits, and click Update.
Organizing your page list
You can use the following page settings to organize your page list:
Hover over a page title, and then click Quick Edit to make changes to these settings. After making any updates, be sure to refresh the page list so you can see the updated view.
Be aware that changes to the page list organization only affect the view of the page list for website administrators and editors: the page list order does not change the menu or anything that website visitors see. To organize the page list as it appears in your website menu, refer instead to Editing the department website menu in WordPress.
Page order setting
The page list appears in reverse chronological order by page creation date, and you can sort the order by clicking the column headers.
By default, when you view the page list, the pages are listed in reverse chronological order by page creation date. To ensure that certain pages appear higher or lower on the list than others, you can change the order setting for a page. Lower order pages will appear higher, while higher order pages will appear lower (for instance, a page with an order set to 0 will appear higher in the list than a page with an order set to 100).
Page parent setting
If you want certain pages to be grouped together in the page list, you can set parent pages. Pages that have a parent page set will be nested under the parent page. Be aware that only published pages can be parent pages.
Example of using order and parent to organize the page list
Suppose that you want to create the following structure in your page list:
- About
- People
- Faculty
- Graduate Students
- Staff
- Events
- Upcoming Events
- Past Events
- Recordings of Past Events
Here's how you would accomplish this:
- Make sure all your pages are published, as draft pages cannot be used as parent pages.
- Using Quick Edit, set the Parent attribute for any nested pages. In this example, that means assigning the following:
- Faculty, Graduate Students, Staff: Set People as the parent page
- Upcoming Events, Past Events: Set Events as the parent page
- Recordings of Past Events: Set Past Events as the parent page
- Use Quick Edit, set the Order attribute:
- By default, the order for every page is set to 0. Assign a higher number to move a page lower down on the list. You must use whole numbers (no decimals). You can skip numbers: for instance, even if you only have five pages total, you can assign a page an order of 100 to move it to the bottom of the list.
- Refresh the page list.
The screenshot below shows the updated page list, with the Parent and Order settings labeled for reference. Observe that where a page has a parent page as well as an order set, the parent takes precedence.
Duplicating a page
There are a few options available for duplicating a page in WordPress. If you are trying to save time by copying an existing page, you can use Clone or New Draft.
On the other hand, if you are trying to revise an already published page, you can use Rewrite & Republish to copy the published page and then republish with the merged changes once you're ready.
Feature name
Clone and
New Draft
Rewrite & Republish
When to use it?
When you want to create a new page and want to save time by copying an existing page as your starting point
When you want to make changes to the published page, but don't want site visitors to see those changes before you're ready
What does it do?
- Creates a new, completely separate draft with the same content as an existing page
- Publishing the draft does not alter or affect the original page
- Creates a new, connected draft with the same content as the original page
- Publishing the draft will replace the original page
How to use it?
Duplicating a page in WordPress
Using Rewrite & Republish to revise a published page in WordPress
Notes
Make sure to update your new page's title and URL (aka slug or permalink), as they are automatically generated based on the original page
The Rewrite & Republish option is not available for draft pages or for pages that already have a Rewrite & Republish draft
Making a page password-protected or private
You can restrict access to specific pages by making them password-protected or private:
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Password-protected: Site visitors must enter a password to view the page. Note that the page must be published, as visitors will not be able to view draft pages even with a password.
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Private: Only your website's admins and editors can view the page.
Quick guide
- Hover over the page title, and select Quick Edit.
- Make your changes:
- To set a password: Enter a password in the Password field.
- To make a page private: Select the Private checkbox.
- Click Update.
Detailed guide (with screenshots)
- Hover over the page title, and select Quick Edit.
- Make your changes:
- To set a password: Enter a password in the Password field.
- To make a page private: Select the Private checkbox.
- Click Update.
Setting the homepage
The homepage is what visitors first see when they navigate to your website. Your website homepage is indicated in the page list by the label "—Front Page" after its title:
To set the homepage, refer to the following guide: