As a WordPress user, you already understand the importance of generating quality content to keep readers engaged and wanting more, but finding a consistent posting schedule can be an equally crucial component to success. Posting frequency has been shown to have a significant impact on a reader’s likeliness to check in with your site daily or to click somewhere else. WordPress shortcuts can help you achieve this.
Whether you choose to post daily, weekly, or just once a month, there is no reason to spend hours upon hours writing, editing, and formatting each post. The key to minimizing the lag time between coming up with an idea and hitting “publish” on a new post is to create content efficiently.
One easy way to maximize efficiency while creating content is to take advantage of WordPress shortcuts. WordPress offers more than 45 shortcuts designed to make your life easier as a content producer. Below are twenty of the most under-utilized WordPress shortcuts currently available to users like you.
Shortcuts in Visual Post Editor
The majority of WordPress users create content in the Visual Post Editor window, which provides an experience similar to Microsoft Word, complete with text styling buttons located across the top of the page. Most of us use shortcuts to speed up the writing process in Word, so why not give these ten shortcuts a try next time you open up WordPress?
Note: All of the following work in the Gutenberg editor introduced in WordPress 5.0.
1. Control + b = Bold
2. Control + I = Italic
3. Alt + Shift + n = Spell check
4. Alt + Shift + l = Align text left
5. Alt + Shift + r = Align text right
6. Alt + Shift + j = Justify text
7. Alt + Shift + c = Align text center
8. Alt + Shift + d = Strikethrough
9. Alt + Shift + a = Insert link
10. Alt + Shift + s = Remove link
Shortcuts in Plain Text Editor
Plain Text Editor is where users who want to see all of the HTML code alongside their text type up new posts. Like the Visual Post Editor, the Plain Text Editor offers some basic formatting buttons across the top of the page, but they can all be accessed via shortcuts. Save yourself some time with the five shortcuts below.
11. Control + x = Cut
12. Control + c = Copy
13. Control + v = Paste
14. Control + z = Undo
15. Alt + Shift + p = Publish
There is even an arsenal of shortcuts specifically designed to help you navigate incoming comments on your site. An active community of readers wanting to share their opinions is something every site owner strives to achieve. The shortcuts below will help you sort, approve, and respond to your readers’ comments efficiently.
16. J = Move to the next comment
17. K = Return to the previous comment
18. A = Approve the comment
19. D = Delete the comment
20. R = Reply to the comment
You can find more helpful shortcode in the WordPress.org Codex.
Of course, it’s not necessary to implement every single one of these shortcuts in order to reap the time-saving benefits. To start, try using just two or three from the list above next time you sit down to create, review or publish a post. Your readers may not notice a difference, but you will.