{"id":66563,"date":"2011-12-13T09:30:21","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T14:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.org\/?p=66563"},"modified":"2011-12-12T23:58:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T04:58:00","slug":"how-to-move-multiple-wordpress-posts-to-a-subcategory-with-bulk-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/how-to-move-multiple-wordpress-posts-to-a-subcategory-with-bulk-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Move Multiple WordPress Posts to a Subcategory with Bulk Actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people have the situation of starting a site, setting up categories, and then discovering down the road that one of their categories gets a lot more content than the others. When this happens, it can get difficult to navigate, and it can be hard for users to find just what they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

The answer to this problem is pretty simple\u2014just create subcategories (sometimes called \u201cchild\u201d categories).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine for all the posts going forward, but what about the posts that already exist? Of course you could just move them all into the new subcategories one-by-one, but there\u2019s an easier way to go about it: simply use \u201cBulk Actions.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Example<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s say you had a category called \u201cFood,\u201d and you decided it was getting too large, so you wanted to break it down into \u201cSalads,\u201d \u201cMain Courses,\u201d and \u201cDesserts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow the steps below.<\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. Add Your New Subcategories<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Add your new subcategories (salads, main courses, desserts). Remember to make these subcategories \u201cchildren\u201d of the \u201cparent\u201d category (in this case the category \u201cFood\u201d). Remember to click \u201cAdd New Category\u201d at the bottom.<\/p>\n

(Posts >> Categories)<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/strong>. Filter Your Posts by Category<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Go to your \u201cAll Posts\u201d screen to get a list of all your posts. (Posts >> All Posts)<\/p>\n

Then filter your posts by using the drop-down menu for your categories.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Use Bulk Action<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Choose the posts you would like to go into your first subcategory (in this case \u201cSalads\u201d) from your main category (in this case \u201cFood\u201d).<\/p>\n

Then choose \u201cEdit\u201d in the \u201cBult Actions\u201d dropdown menu.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

Then click \u201cApply.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

Then select your subcategory from the list (in this case \u201cSalads\u201d), and click \u201cUpdate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

You will now see that all your selected posts have been added to your new subcategory (in this case \u201cSalads\u201d). Rinse and repeat for any other subcategories you want to add.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a><\/p>\n

You will also notice that the posts still reside in the original main\/parent category (in this case \u201cFood\u201d). Keeping the post in the parent category is probably fine for most people; however, if you would like to have the posts in the subcategories only (and not the main categories), then you will need to change those posts one by one (there is currently no way to use \u201cbulk actions\u201d in order to move posts out of a category).<\/p>\n

Final Notes on Creating Subcategories<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re just starting a site and you aren\u2019t sure if you need subcategories or not, then no need to worry. As you can see, creating them later and moving your already existing posts into newly created subcategories is no big deal.<\/p>\n

You also might want to hold off on subcategories until you are sure you need them. Having many categories with only one or two posts in them may make your site look somewhat dead, even if it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

*** Note:<\/strong> Of course you can use this same basic procedure to move posts to another main category. It doesn\u2019t have to be a subcategory. Keep in mind, however, that your posts will still remain in the original category as well unless you deselect them from that category one-by-one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Need to add multiple posts to a different category all at once? No problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84404,"featured_media":205630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[152],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-66563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205632,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66563\/revisions\/205632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66563"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=66563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}