How to Allow Authors to Revise Published Posts in WordPress

Do you want to allow authors to revise published posts in WordPress?

Sometimes, authors may find a mistake or two in a published post. Or maybe the information in the article is no longer updated. In this case, it may be quicker and easier to have them revise the article themselves.

In this article, we will share how to allow authors to revise published posts in WordPress.

When and Why You Should Allow Authors to Revise Published Posts

WordPress comes with a powerful user role and permissions system, which allows you to add new authors and users to your website.

If you are running a multi-author WordPress blog, then you may want to allow authors or guest bloggers to make changes to their own posts.

It is possible to let contributors edit their published WordPress posts without getting approval from an editor or admin. However, this isn’t always the best approach, as admins or editors will often need to review the changes before publishing them.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can allow authors to revise published posts on your WordPress site while still requiring admin approval.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t want to watch the video, then you can continue reading the text version below.

Allowing Authors to Revise Published Posts in WordPress

The easiest way to allow authors to revise published blogs is by using Revision Manager TMC. This free plugin allows anyone with the editor, author, or contributor role to create a new draft from a published post.

They can then make changes and submit the revision for editorial review. Once approved, the editor can easily merge the changes to the live post.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Revision Manager plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Settings » Revision Manager TMC in the WordPress admin area to configure the plugin’s settings.

To start, you will want to choose whether to accept revisions for pages or posts.

Depending on how your WordPress website is set up, you may see some extra options in this section, such as attachments and navigation menus. The Pro version lets you choose custom post types.

Next, open the ‘Copy creation capability’ dropdown and select ‘edit_posts’.

Then, you need to open the ‘Acceptation capability’ dropdown menu and select ‘published_posts’. This will allow contributors to create a duplicate copy of a published post.

After that, open the ‘Role for notification’ dropdown and choose who to notify when changes are ready for review. This will typically be an admin or editor, but you can select any user role you want.

Many websites have an issue with WordPress not sending emails correctly. For that reason, we recommend checking that you will receive all the Revision Manager emails as expected.

Simply scroll to the ‘Quick test’ section and type in the email address where you want to receive a test email.

Then, click on ‘Send test’.

If you don’t receive the test email, then your WordPress hosting server may not be properly configured to use the PHP mail() function. Many email providers also incorrectly label WordPress emails as spam.

The easiest way to fix this problem is by using WP Mail SMTP. It is the best WordPress SMTP plugin that allows you to easily send WordPress emails using any SMTP service provider and ensure they arrive safely in the receiver’s inbox.

For step-by-step instructions, see our guide on how to set up WP Mail SMTP with any host.

When you are happy with how the Revision Manager plugin is configured, click on ‘Update settings’ to store your changes.

That done, you may want to test the revision feature by switching to a contributor account.

In the contributor account, simply go to Posts » All Posts from the admin sidebar and hover your mouse over a published post. You’ll now see an option to ‘Create revision draft’.

Once a contributor clicks on the ‘Create revision draft’ link, the plugin will create a duplicate of the published post and open it for editing.

The contributor can now make changes to the post and submit it for review once they are happy with the revision.

Upon submission, the admin or editor will receive a notification to review and publish the post. This can improve the editorial workflow in multi-author WordPress blogs.

You can now switch to an admin or editor account in WordPress and go to Posts » All Posts. Here, you will see the revision ready for you to edit.

You can now hover over the revision and click on the ‘Edit’ link when it appears, next to ‘Quick Edit.’

This opens the revision in the WordPress block editor.

In the post editor, you will also see a ‘Revision differences’ panel where you can see all the changes the contributor has made.

When you are happy with the revision, you can click on the ‘Publish’ button to make it live on your WordPress blog.

Revision Manager will now override the original post and delete the duplicate in the WordPress dashboard.

Learn More Ways to Improve Your WordPress Editorial Process

Want to make your WordPress editorial and publishing workflows even better? Check out these guides to gain more insights:

• How to Limit Authors to Their Own Posts in WordPress Admin
• How to Add a Blog Post Checklist to the WordPress Editor
• How to Auto-Schedule Your WordPress Blog Posts
• How to Automatically Schedule Content Updates in WordPress
• How to Add Custom Post Status for Blog Posts in WordPress
• How to Prevent Authors From Deleting Posts in WordPress

We hope this article helped you learn how to allow authors to revise published posts in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to make money online blogging with WordPress or our expert picks for the best SEO plugins and tools that you should use.

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