There are many circumstances in which you might find yourself needing to change the author of a postal service in WordPress. Even so, the platform doesn't make information technology immediately clear how to accomplish this task.

Fortunately, in that location are several methods you tin can utilise to change, update, and edit the author of a WordPress post. All you need to know is where to look and which strategy is all-time suited to your item state of affairs and needs.

In this post, we'll discuss some of the circumstances that might lead you to attribute a postal service to someone other than the original writer. And so we'll walk you through five different ways to practice and then, and explain when to use each method. Permit's get started!

Why You Might Need to Alter a Post'southward Author in WordPress

While this may seem similar a rarely-needed chore, changing a post'south author in WordPress may exist necessary in a diversity of different situations. This is especially true if you run a large, multi-author content hub.

Many content-heavy sites with more than ane writer consider posts the property of the publication, rather than individuals. If a writer chooses to leave your site for any reason, you may want to change their posts' author to the name of a content creator who is still associated with your site.

Similarly, a change in user condition may warrant updates to a post'due south author. If your screening procedure involves initially publishing posts under an editor's name, merely you lot eventually determine to bring the author on board, you might want to attribute the posts to their creator after the fact.

In other cases, you may want to remove or hide writer names birthday. This can give your site a more cohesive identity, as your posts will appear to come from a unmarried source. Plus, unmarried-author sites tin can benefit from less-cluttered looking posts when the writer names are invisible.

Finally, there may be times when you need to modify an author's display name in WordPress. Whether they accept undergone a name modify, wish to publish their posts under a pen name, or something else entirely, this is a courteous way to respect your authors' preferences regarding how they're presented online.

As y'all can see, the demand to change a post's author in WordPress comes upwards more frequently than you might expect. Learning how to address all of these situations will aid your site run smoothly, and improve equip you to maintain its identity and presentation.

How to Change the Writer of a Postal service in WordPress (5 Methods)

Just as there are many reasons y'all may need to change a postal service's author in WordPress, there are also many ways to accomplish the chore. Beneath nosotros'll encompass five methods and discuss the situations they're each best suited to.

If you like, yous tin can use the post-obit links to spring directly to the section you're most interested in:

  1. Alter a postal service's author to some other existing user
  2. Add a new author and assign existing posts to them
  3. Remove or hide the writer proper name on your WordPress posts
  4. Update an author'south display name in WordPress
  5. Bulk modify post authors on your site

If you're using the new WordPress Cake Editor, changing a published post's author couldn't be easier. Showtime, access the postal service past navigating to Posts > All Posts and clicking on the relevant title.

In the post editor, select the Certificate tab in the sidebar. Under the Condition & Visibility heading, y'all should see Author followed by a drop-downwards carte du jour:

Change author in Blok Editor
Change author in Blok Editor

From hither, you lot tin can select the name of any author with an existing business relationship on your WordPress site. It'southward important to note that you cannot create a new author from this screen – we'll comprehend how to do that later in this post.

One time you've selected the new author's proper name from the drop-down menu, select Update to brand the alter live:

Update author in Block Editor
Update author in Block Editor

If you're still using the Archetype Editor, the process will look a picayune different. Outset, y'all'll need to expand the Screen Options bill of fare above the editor:

Screen options in Classic Editor
Screen options in Archetype Editor

Under Boxes , select the checkbox next to Author :

Author checkbox
Author checkbox

Then gyre down to the bottom of the editor. Here, you'll run into that at that place'southward now a drop-down carte du jour similar to the 1 in the Block Editor:

Author dropdown menu
Author drop-down menu

Select the name of the post's new writer, and so click on the Update button to go far official:

Update author in Classic Editor
Update author in Classic Editor

Regardless of which editor you use, you tin can likewise change a post'south author using the Quick Edit function in the Posts list. Simply select the Quick Edit choice under the mail service's title, and and so choose the new writer from the relevant drop-downward carte du jour and click on the Update button:

Change author through quick edit option
Change author through quick edit option

This method works well if you have a unmarried post you lot need to reattribute considering the original author left your site, or yous otherwise have reason to credit a different existing user for the post. Changing a post'southward author to a new user, on the other manus, will require a few actress steps.

2. Add a New Author and Assign Existing Posts to Them

In WordPress, you can simply attribute a mail service to an existing author. In other words, at that place'south no way to create a new author for a post from either of the content editors.

So, permit's say you lot're bringing in a new Correspondent or Writer , and you wish to more than accurately attribute posts they've written that were published under the name of an Editor or Administrator . You'll first need to create a user business relationship for the new writer.

It'southward worth noting that if you let frontend user account cosmos, the mail's new writer may already have an account. All the same, you'll however demand to follow these steps to requite them the proper permissions, in order to credit them on their posts.

To handle this chore, you lot'll need Administrator status on your website. If you're non a site Administrator, you'll need to contact one to carry out these steps for you.

So, navigate to the Users area of your WordPress dashboard. If yous're creating a new user, click on the Add together New button at the top of the screen. If you're editing a user'due south permissions, you tin can merely select Edit beneath their username:

Users page
Users page

For new users, fill out the required fields and any others you wish to include. Make certain their role is prepare to Author or Contributor , depending on which is more appropriate:

Adding a new user
Adding a new user

To edit a user account created on the frontend, you lot can merely change their function by scrolling down to the relevant drop-downwards carte on the Edit User screen:

Changing user role
Changing user role

In either case, make sure to save your changes. Once the user has been added and has the proper role, you tin can attribute posts to them every bit described in the first method above.

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3. Remove or Hibernate the Author Name on Your WordPress Posts

In some cases, it makes more sense to leave the authors' names off of your WordPress posts. If you are the only author, removing the name eliminates back-up and makes your posts less chaotic.

Every bit for multi-author sites, leaving out authors' names minimizes individuality on your site. You'll nowadays a more cohesive identity for your site and brand, which could be benign in business blogs where you desire readers to see your content as originating from the company rather than specific writers.

There are two ways to get nearly hiding writer names. To manually remove author information from your posts, y'all'll need to edit your site's theme. Navigate to Advent > Customize in your dashboard, and then scroll downward to the Boosted CSS surface area of the Customizer:

Hiding an author's name
Hiding an writer's proper name

In the field provided, you can add the following code:

                      /* Remove meta data */ .entry-meta .byline, .entry-meta .cat-links { display: none; } .entry-meta .posted-on { display: none; }        

If that doesn't do the trick, you can also delete your theme's metadata code. Still, the location of this information varies from theme to theme. You may need to contact the theme's creator in order to find it. Even so, editing theme files directly is ever risky.

Instead, you might want to consider using a plugin that can remove metadata such every bit author names from your blog posts without touching a line of code. WP Meta and Date Remover is a sound option if you choose to take this road:

WP Meta and Date Remove plugin
WP Meta and Date Remover plugin

Once you lot've installed and activated the plugin, all you lot have to do is choose whether to hibernate meta information from the frontend, the dorsum stop, or both. Salvage the settings, and you'll accept a site that appears to exist crafted past a single writer, even if information technology isn't.

four. Update an Author's Display Proper noun in WordPress

In some cases, what you actually need is not to change a post'southward author proper name. Rather, the user who wrote the post in question may only wish for the posts attributed to them to display a different name than the i that'south currently listed.

This may occur in a variety of situations, including:

  • If you want to display a full name instead of a username, to make your posts look more than professional.
  • When an writer has legally changed their name and wants to update their posts to reflect that.
  • Instances where an author has decided to use a new name for their posts on your site, in order to maintain consistency beyond content platforms or to differentiate betwixt them.
  • Cases in which you or an author wishes to use a pen name for their posts.

These scenarios warrant a change to the user's account, rather than to the posts themselves. You tin provide the instructions beneath to whatsoever user wishing to brand a change to their name or follow these steps yourself for whatsoever other user's account if y'all have Administrator status.

Access the user's account settings, by navigating to Users in your WordPress dashboard. Under Name , yous'll see the writer's username as well equally fields for their first, last, and nickname:

A user's account settings page
A user's account settings folio

Make full in or modify whichever of these fields you similar (although yous can't change your username from this page. Here'southward how you tin alter username.). Then, utilise the drop-down menu beside Display proper name publicly to select either the username, nickname, get-go, last, or full name.

Don't forget to relieve your changes afterward. This will automatically change the author's name on all of their posts, using the new display name instead. Frequently, updating the user'south contour tin exist the well-nigh efficient style to change a post'due south author.

5. Bulk Modify Post Authors on Your Site

Allow'southward say you have a situation like to the one nosotros described in Method #1, i.e. an writer has left your site and you wish to reassign their posts to someone who still writes for you. All the same, instead of a single mail service, the ex-user has several.

While yous could modify the author for each individual post your previous contributor left behind, it'southward much more efficient to apply WordPress' majority editing capabilities. This way, yous tin can modify the name beyond all relevant posts with the click of a button.

To do this, navigate to your Posts list in WordPress and select the checkbox next to each of the posts yous need to attribute to a new writer. Then select Edit from the Majority Actions drop-downwardly menu:

Bulk editing authors
Bulk editing authors

This will open up a window much like the ane y'all encounter when using the Quick Edit part:

Bulk editing option
Bulk editing pick

Select the appropriate name from the Author driblet-down bill of fare, and then click on the Update button. This will update the name of the writer on all the posts you selected and brand the changes live on your site:

How to change author's name in bulk
How to change author'southward name in bulk

As with the showtime method, this will only piece of work if yous're attempting to attribute the posts to an existing author. If you lot desire to add a new user to take over the former user's posts, you'll first need to follow the steps in Method #two to create a new user account with the appropriate part.

Additionally, yous can't select multiple authors for the posts you're bulk editing. So if you want to divide a former contributor'south posts among more than ane user, y'all'll demand to bulk edit the relevant posts for each new author.

How to Change the Author Archive Slug in WordPress

Earlier we wrap things up, let's talk about one more tangential attribute of changing authors in WordPress. Sometimes, instead of switching the actual author proper noun, you might just want to change the author 'slug' that shows up in the URL for their archive page:

Archive page
Archive page

To practise this, you lot can utilise a free plugin called Edit Author Slug. After installing and activating the plugin, head over to Users > All Users and open up upwards the editing interface for the user you desire to work with. So, scroll to the lesser and find the Author Slug options:

Author slug settings page
Author slug settings page

Enter your desired writer slug into the Custom box, then click on Update User . The plugin will automatically update all links pointing to that author's annal page, using the new slug.

You tin can also alter the default base for your site'due south author slug by going to Settings > Edit Author Slug . Enter your desired base into the Writer Base box, and select Save Changes at the bottom of the folio:

Editing the author slug
Editing the author slug

Just be aware that doing this will alter every single author URL on your site. This could bear on your Search Engine Optimization. As with any time you change your WordPress site's URL construction, it'due south a proficient idea to implement redirect rules if you change the default base author slug.

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Summary

There are a variety of reasons why you may observe yourself needing to change the author of a postal service in WordPress. In that location are also many ways to do then, which can present its own challenges. You lot'll demand to determine which method is the all-time choice for your situation.

To help you decide, we've looked at v different routes y'all can take to update an author's name for one or more posts in WordPress:

  1. Alter a post's author to another existing user.
  2. Add a new author and assign existing posts to them.
  3. Remove or hide the author name from your WordPress posts.
  4. Update an author's display name in WordPress.
  5. Bulk change post authors on your site.

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