WordPress CMS for (Not) Dummies – Top Ten Timesaving Hints and Tips

We often work with clients whose first experience is with a different CMS, or a previous iteration of WordPress that is more templated, and so the new way of working with Gutenberg blocks can seem daunting on your first log in.

With this in mind, here are our top ten tips for working in the current WordPress CMS, some of them you may already know, but some of them may bring you that “Aha!” moment you needed to get yourself unstuck!

Top Ten Timesaving Hints and Tips

1. If things aren’t lining up correctly in a page once you save, seem weirdly spaced, or aren’t appearing at all, there might be simple user error at fault. Click on the “Document Overview” button in the top bar – this lets you see where blocks are lined up and which blocks are nested where. You should be able to see your issue easily from there.

2. The square “Settings” button at the top right of any page when clicked will open and close the sidebar menu, and the three dots button next to it contains your general view settings. For example, if you want to use distraction free mode (where all the side bars are hidden) you can select it from here.

3. Sometimes there is a case for moving a word/sentence onto the next line without creating a brand new paragraph (as is the case if you press “Enter”). If you hold down “Shift” when pressing “Enter” the cursor will move to a new line but remain in the current paragraph, keeping the content together. This works the same for both Mac and PC.

4. If you are duplicating several pages, or translating a page, and have used a complicated block set up, it is much quicker to copy all the blocks and content from your current page and paste them into your new page, rather than build each page from scratch. This option can easily be accessed from the three dot menu on the top right. Click on it and choose “Copy all blocks”. Simply start a new page and paste!

5. WordPress creates a url from your title by default, but it may not always be the most user-friendly. Try to keep urls short and concise so that they are not confusing – they do not need to match the title of the page exactly. Stop words (and, the, a, etc.) are not necessary and will not affect SEO, as rankings are searching the content of the page and not the url. With the Settings bar open on the right hand side, click into the “slug” section and update. Make sure to save your changes.

6. To add a new block on your page you generally use the blue + sign at the top left, however, once you start to become more familiar with block names, there is a slightly quicker method. Typing a “/” and then beginning to type the name of the block will bring up a dropdown from which you can just select your chosen block.

7. If you’re on a page in the CMS but the content you add doesn’t seem to affect the front end of your site, it may be that this page is linked to a post-type. When developers build out a listing page, such as a blog listing, these are often populated automatically by a post-type rather than from the page itself. If in doubt, ask your developer!

And now, a few tips for users that have bilingual sites:

8. If you have a bilingual site and realise that you created two pages or posts independently without linking them in the CMS, all is not lost. If you are using a plugin such as WPML (our preferred choice), simply make sure that “Page” is displayed in the Settings bar on the right, scroll down to the Languages section and look for “Connect with translations” (this will only appear if there are posts in your second language that have not been linked to a counterpart). When you click on this, a pop-up will appear with a dropdown, and you can use this to search for the post/page in the other language. Select and make sure you confirm. Instructions might vary slightly if you use a different language plugin.

9. If you are committed to having multiple languages on your site then you have committed to offering content in both of these languages (or at least offering an explanation as to why the other content doesn’t exist). There are a couple of indicators for when pages or posts are missing in your secondary language (this tip is based on the experience when using WPML):

• When you choose a post-type or pages section from the left hand menu bar, you will always see the total number of this type listed at the top of your view. You should see the name of each of your languages with a corresponding number next to it. If these numbers are not the same across all your languages, it is an indication that you have some matching content missing.
• As you look down your listing of posts or pages you will see a column underneath a language flag with one of three symbols: a pencil means that the post or page exists in the other language, a circle of two arrows means you updated content in one language and not the other (this may be fine), a “+” indicates that the content is yet to be created in the other language and should be rectified.

One last tip for those slightly more confident WordPress CMS users…

10. There is a way to create reusable content using WordPress block patterns e.g. if there is a set of blocks and/or content you want to re-use. There are two types of patterns – synced and un-synced – and they both have different purposes.

• Synced patterns are used when the content is going to remain the same in that block or group of blocks no matter where you use it. For example, say you have some terms and conditions for a set of initiatives, and these are the same across all initiatives pages on your site, you would use a synced pattern in this case. Synced means that if you change any of the content in the pattern, the content would change everywhere the pattern is being used. This type of pattern is helpful if you want to make sure you are keeping content the same and up to date everywhere, without having to repeat the work in multiple places.
• Un-synced patterns can be used when you like the layout of a group of blocks, and can see it being useful elsewhere in your site. In this case, the pattern content itself can be overwritten (similar to a sort of block template) and this will only change in the instance you are using it.

In order to create a pattern, you first need to group all your blocks. Select all the blocks you want to create a pattern from, and choose “Create pattern” from the menu. Give it a name that is memorable to you, and add it to a category (if that is relevant). Sync toggle should be OFF if you want to be able to edit this pattern (for example if you are using the pattern for its layout rather than its content). If you want the content to always remain the same when you re-use the pattern then you should have the toggle set to ON. Click the “add” button. To delete or adjust patterns that you have created. Go to your main settings and choose “Manage Patterns”.

With these tips in your back pocket you can feel confident in your CMS experience and potentially troubleshoot your own or your team members’ issues yourself.

For more WordPress CMS help, check in with your Project Manager or schedule a short training session with our team, we’d love to help! Click here to set up a quick, no-commitment chat.