10 Awesome WordPress Features You Probably Didn‘t Know Existed

WordPress has grown to become the world‘s most popular CMS, now powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. With millions of sites relying on WordPress, many users still don‘t realize the vast functionality contained within.

In my 15 years as a webmaster, I‘ve discovered WordPress contains many powerful built-in features beyond the basics. In this post, I‘ll share 10 awesome WordPress features that most users overlook, but that can dramatically enhance your experience as a site owner. Understanding these capabilities will help you tap into the full potential of WordPress.

1. Take Complete Control Over the Admin Bar

The admin bar allows logged-in WordPress users to quickly access key site functions right from the frontend. By default, it includes your site title, links to visit the dashboard, update content, and more. However, you can fully customize what appears here:

To modify the admin bar, go to Users > Your Profile. Scroll down to the Toolbar section, where you‘ll see a list of all available items you can add or remove:

• Site Name
• View Site
• Edit Page
• Dashboard
• Collapse Menu
• Comments
• New Content
• My Account

And more. Simply check or uncheck to show/hide each item in your admin bar.

For example, you may want quick links to view all Pages, edit your primary menu, or jump right to Comments. Tailor it to your own workflow. I like to pare down the default items and only enable what I use regularly. This keeps the bar clean for easy access to the essentials.

You can also reorder the items by dragging and dropping. Put what you use most on the left side for one-click access. Customizing the admin bar in this manner shaves precious seconds off common WordPress tasks.

2. Never Lose Content With Revision History

As you write and edit content in WordPress, it automatically saves your changes as revisions in the background. You can view the full revision history for a post or page from the Publish box:

The number in parentheses shows how many revisions have been saved. Click on any revision date to preview or restore an older draft. This lets you compare changes over time, or undo mistakes by rolling back to a previous version.

For example, say you accidentally deleted an important paragraph from your latest post. Or you overwrote some text but can‘t remember the original wording. With revision history, you can quickly revive that lost content.

By default, WordPress saves unlimited revisions for the first 30 days. After that it will keep the most recent 5 revisions. You can adjust these settings in Settings > Writing:

Knowing every save is preserved allows you to write freely without fear of losing work. I can‘t tell you how many times revision tracking has rescued me!

3. Add Helpful Icons to Menu Items

Navigation menus typically use text links only. But you can easily append icons to menu items for handy visual identification. This improves user-friendliness, especially for beginners.

For example, add a house icon to your home page link, a magnifying glass to the search page, an image icon for the gallery page, etc:

To add an icon, go to Appearance > Menus while editing your menu. Simply insert the Font Awesome icon class next to the link label, such as fa-home or fa-image. Save your menu and the icon will now display alongside the text.

You can browse Font Awesome‘s extensive icon library to find relevant icons. Using familiar icons reduces the visitor‘s cognitive load. Plus it adds some nice flair to an otherwise plain text menu.

4. Manage Widgets Without Dragging for Accessibility

Dragging and dropping widgets into sidebars is a core WordPress task. But for users with disabilities or motor impairments, this can pose challenges.

Fortunately, WordPress includes a lesser-known Accessibility Mode that lets you move widgets up, down, in or out of sidebars without any dragging:

To enable this mode, go to Appearance > Widgets and click Screen Options at the top. Check the box for Accessibility Mode:

Now you can easily move widgets to different areas and reorder them using the up/down arrows next to each widget. No dragging required!

Accessibility Mode improves WordPress usability for all users. As a bonus, it can help avoid mis-dragging widgets which can be tricky on touch devices.

5. Streamline Editing with Bulk Actions

When managing a site with lots of content, editing posts and pages one by one is tedious and time-consuming. Luckily, WordPress makes it easy to update multiples posts or pages simultaneously.

On the Posts or Pages screen, check the boxes next to the titles you want to edit in bulk:

Then select the Bulk Actions dropdown and choose your desired action. The most common are:

• Edit – Edit common fields like categories, tags, authors, etc.
• Move to Trash – Delete multiple items at once
• Change status – Change from draft to publish, scheduled, etc.

Upon clicking Apply, a bulk edit form will appear allowing you to quickly update all the selected posts.

For example, say you wanted to change the author from Jane to John for 20 pages. With bulk edit, you can make this change in one step in seconds. Without it, you‘d have to manually edit each page one by one, consuming far more time.

The bulk actions menu is your best friend when managing lots of content or making sweeping changes across multiple posts/pages.

6. Master Post Status Control

You‘re likely familiar with the "Published" status when writing posts and pages. But did you know WordPress offers granular control over post status and visibility?

Beyond published, some other helpful status options include:

• Draft – Work in progress not visible to public
• Pending – Awaiting review before publishing
• Future – Scheduled to publish later
• Private – Only visible to logged in users

For example, you may set blog posts to "Pending" status while writing them. Then your editor can review and switch them to "Published" once approved.

Or you can schedule a page to change from "Future" to "Published" at a specific date/time for a big launch.

Here‘s an overview of common post status options:

The ability to precisely control status and visibility improves your overall content workflow. You maintain clear oversight as posts flow from drafts to review, scheduled publishing, and more.

7. Extend Content Possibilities with Custom Post Types

By default, WordPress only includes two main content types: Posts and Pages. But for advanced sites, you may want to publish other types of content beyond standard blogs and pages.

For example:

• Products
• Portfolio Projects
• Team Members
• Videos
• Events
• Presentations

That‘s where Custom Post Types come in. This feature allows you to create completely new content types tailored to your needs.

So rather than forcing diverse content into generic "posts", you can organize them into their own custom post types.

For example, a video sharing site could have a "Videos" custom post type with fields for entering video URLs, embed code, length, genres, etc. An event site could have an "Events" type with fields for date, location, speakers, ticketing, and so on.

The possibilities are endless. Here are some other examples of sites perfectly suited for leveraging custom post types:

• Recipes – Ingredients, instructions, cook time, nutrition info, photos, etc.
• Products – Price, SKU, inventory, shipping weight, photos, variations, etc.
• Book Reviews – ISBN, title, author, rating, verdict, etc.
• Coupons – Code, discount, brand, expire date, etc.

With custom post types, you can go far beyond basic blogging in WordPress. Defining your own content structures and templates unlocks the full CMS potential of WordPress.

8. Embed Multimedia Easily with Shortcodes

Looking to embed a YouTube video or Tweet into your content? No need to worry about the tricky embed code, you can simply use shortcodes instead.

WordPress will automatically transform the shortcode into valid embed code when the page loads. For example, here‘s how to embed a YouTube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObvFqc_ZG3o

And a Twitter post:

https://twitter.com/wordpress/status/1199132523676721158

When the page loads, those shortcodes get converted dynamically like this:

What a year! We turned 15 and released @WordPress 5.3 "Kirk" – named after Dr. James T. Kirk. ????

Here are some highlights in our journey from 2004 to 2019. Can't wait to see what the next 15 years brings! pic.twitter.com/Iim28DcrAm

— WordPress (@WordPress) November 27, 2019

Shortcodes provide an easy shortcut to embed responsive multimedia without memorizing messy embed code. WordPress handles the heavy lifting!

9. Modify Your Theme Visually with Customizer

One of the best ways to personalize your WordPress site is by modifying your theme. But digging through template code isn‘t very beginner-friendly.

That‘s where the powerful Theme Customizer comes in. This feature allows you to customize various theme elements visually right from your WordPress dashboard:

To access it, go to Appearance > Customize. Here you can tweak options like:

• Site identity (title, logo, colors)
• Layout (sidebars, widget areas)
• Typography (fonts, sizes, colors)
• Header image
• Background image
• Menus
• And much more…

The live preview window lets you see your changes as you make them. No need to constantly click save and refresh!

The theme customizer allows endless customization without coding knowledge. You can match the styling to your brand, test variations, and enhance the visual design.

10. Install and Manage Plugins Like a Pro

One of WordPress‘ greatest strengths is its vast library of plugins. Plugins allow you to easily extend functionality without programming everything from scratch.

Managing plugins is done seamlessly right from your WordPress dashboard:

Go to Plugins > Add New to search or browse the plugin repository. Use the category filters to quickly find plugins for security, SEO, social media, forms, galleries, commerce, and more.

Once installed, you can activate/deactivate plugins instantly with the toggle switches. Click on a plugin to configure settings, view documentation, or delete if no longer needed. Keeping plugins updated is critical for site security and performance.

Proper plugin management and configuration gives you fine-grained control over WordPress functionality. There are over 55,000+ free plugins available!

Recap: Master WordPress with these Hidden Gems

To recap, we went over some of the most useful yet overlooked native WordPress features:

1. Craft your ideal Admin Bar
2. Never lose content with revisions
3. Add helpful icons to menus
4. Manage widgets without dragging (accessibility)
5. Edit in bulk to save vast time
6. Precisely control post visibility
7. Extend content possibilities with custom post types
8. Embed media using shortcodes
9. Customize your theme visually
10. Install and manage plugins like a pro

These examples are really just the tip of the iceberg. Optimizing these functions makes it easier to use WordPress smoothly and ultimately build a better site.

I hope this guide helps you utilize the full power of WordPress whether you‘re a beginner or experienced user. Are there any other hidden gems I missed? Let me know in the comments below!