Today in this tutorial, we are going to talk about WordPress Writing Settings. Here you would learn what configuration options are available in the Writing screen and how to configure the “Writing” Settings of WordPress.
In general, the writing settings control your article writing experience and provide options to customize the interface you use for writing article.
These Settings (Writing) control the features related to adding and editing posts, pages, post types, as well as some optional functions such as publishing a post via e-mail and post update services.
How to Open WordPress Writing Settings:
You can access the writing settings by going to your WordPress Dashboard and click on Settings ⇒ Writing option. (As shown in the below image)
Then it will open the WordPress Writing Settings Screen as shown below
Now you are all set to configure the Settings of WordPress Writing Screen.
Configuring WordPress Writing Settings:
While you can to the Settings ⇒ Writing page, you got many options like selecting default post category, default post format, post via email etc to customize your default writing interface. All the options are explained below:
Default Post Category:
This gives you an option to specify a default post category for any new post you write. You can select a specific category name from drop-down if you have already created one. By default, the post category for new posts is selected as Uncategorized.
This category is helpful in some situation such as, if you forgot to specify any category for a new post then WordPress will automatically assign the category mentioned here. Or in case if you delete a Category then all posts that are assigned to that deleted Category will be assigned the default post Category. See our guide on how to manage WordPress categories.
Also, If you have several Categories created in WordPress but you mostly use only one of those Categories, then selecting that frequently used Category here can make your life little bit easier.
Default Post Format:
We certainly know that we can write WordPress posts in different formats like standard, aside, image, video etc. Post Formats are mainly used by WordPress themes to create different visual styles for different types of posts.
The Post Format drop-down gives you an option to select the default Post Format for all your new posts. The default value for this field is "Standard", but if you do use some other post formats for your blog then you can select the most frequently used format here.
Please note that this setting will be visible to you only if your current activated theme supports different Post Formats.
Post via e-mail:
By configuring this option, you can set up your website/blog to publish blog posts that it receives via an email from a specific email address.
To do this, you need to first create an email id with SMTP and POP3 Support. Then you need to configure some options such as mail server, email id login name, password, and assign a default post category for all the emails WordPress receives.
This feature is purely optional, But in case if you want to use it then it is highly recommended that you create a secret arbitrary email address for WordPress to use.
The email login name should be a complex one so that no one can guess it, nor even hackers. Because WordPress will publish any email it receives, even if it receives any spam email.
That is why this messages is displayed at the beginning of this section:
"To post to WordPress by email you must set up a secret email account with POP3 access. Any mail received at this address will be posted, so it’s a good idea to keep this address very secret. Here are three random strings you could use: ogjvJXH3, V0ouRlcn, LQ2Vx5kN."
Now we will move to the configuration part of email post:
1) Mail Server: A mail server is where all the emails are received and stored for the purpose of future retrieval. Your mail server will have a URI address, such as mail.yourdomain.com, which you should enter here. You can get this information from your web host or email hosts (whatever you use).
2) Port: WordPress generally usually use TCP port 110 (POP3 address) to receive requests related to emails. If your mail server is configured to use a different port, enter that port number here. You can get this information from your web host or email hosts (whatever you use).
3) Login Name: This is generally the "Email ID" you have created. For example, if you have created slfnbv@yourdomail.com to use with WordPress for posting via email, then the login name would be either slfnbv@yourdomail.com or slfnbv depending on your email server's configuration.
4) Password: Enter the login password you have given while creating the above e-mail address. Use a complex password for this.
5) Default Mail Category: This is the default category WordPress will assign to all of the posts published via the Post by e-mail feature. You can select your desired category from this drop-down.
Update Services:
This is the post ping service for WordPress. When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies all of the update services listed in this box.
When entering services, be sure to write each of them in separate lines. And please note that, If the WordPress Search engine visibility Settings under the WordPress Reading settings page is set to "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" then this option would not work.
For viewing more detail about this, see the article Update Services on the Codex.
Save Changes:
The last and final step is to save the entire configuration you have just changed; Clicking on the Save Changes button will ensure that any changes you have made to these Settings are saved to your database.
Once you click the save changes button, a confirmation text box will appear notifying you that your settings have been saved.
We hope that you have enjoyed the above tutorial on how to Configure WordPress Writing Settings. Be with us to explore free training on Leading Technologies and Certifications.
Leave us some comments if you have any question about the options you see at WordPress Settings ⇒ Writing screen, we would be very happy to help you.
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