How to Add and Customize Admin Columns in WordPress

Managing a WordPress site with lots of content or multiple authors means more tasks for admins to perform. Admins of growing WordPress sites are always looking for tools and plugins to improve their editorial workflow. A lot of the tasks that needs to be performed can be done quicker if you can see all the useful information on one screen. That’s when admin columns come in. In this article, we will show you how to add and customize admin columns in WordPress.

By default, WordPress only shows a few built-in columns. Codepress Admin Columns plugin will give you many additional columns. You will have full control over all columns for pages, posts, custom post types, media, links, comments and users.

First thing you need to do is install and activate Codepress Admin Columns plugin. After activation, go to Settings » Admin Columns to configure admin columns.

You can customize admin columns by simply using the drag and drop interface to arrange items in the order you want.

In the screenshot above we have added featured image as an item to admin view for posts screen. If your thumbnails appear too big or in the wrong size, then you need to regenerate thumbnails for new image sizes in WordPress.

There are a number of items available for each admin screen that you can add to the view. For example, you can add specific custom fields on the posts screen or add total word counts. On the media screen you can add image dimensions, EXIF data, Alt text, and caption.

For a full list of fields available check out the plugin page.

This plugin can be very useful if you want to create an organized workflow. Explore the items that you want to add to the admin view of each section. Next, simply add items that you find useful. You can also adjust columns width by clicking on an item.

We hope this article helped you customize and add admin columns in WordPress. Let us know what columns you like to see on your admin screens by leaving a comments below.