WP Butler is a plugin that was recently released by Japh Thompson and jordesign that is designed to provide a quick and very efficient way to navigate around the WordPress Dashboard.
It streamlines how you access various parts of the Dashboard by providing a modal command dialog that is opened by a keyboard short code.
You simply enter the command for what you want to do and WP Butler does the rest.
The command dialog is triggered by pressing Shift + Alt +B on your keyboard. Once the dialog is opened, you simply enter what you want to do. After typing your command and hitting Enter, WP Butler will take you to the screen you requested.
Since there are a lot of commands available to WP Butler, I’m going to try and walk through all of the possible options with you here.
There are several categories of actions, so we will go through each one of them.
Generic Actions
These are actions that are commonly performed on a site. You can think of these as short cuts to the main Dashboard menu items, such as Themes, Plugins, Users, etc. The format of the list is as follows:
Command (what you enter) - Action performed (what happens)
- Dashboard – takes you to the main WP Dashboard
- Home – takes you to the main WP Dashboard
- WordPress Updates – takes you to the WP updates page
- Manage Themes – take you to Appearance > Themes
- Install Themes – takes you to Appearance > Themes > Add New
- Plugins – takes you to Plugins
- Update Plugins – takes you to Plugins and shows the plugins with updates available
- Edit Plugins – takes you to Plugins > Editor
- Install Plugins – takes you to Plugins > Add New
- All Users – takes you to Users
- Add New User – takes you to Users > Add New
- Profile – takes you to Users > Your Profile
Generic Site Actions
- Media Library – takes you to the Media Library
- Upload New Media – takes you to the Add New media page
- Comments – takes you to the main Comments page
- Widgets – takes you to Appearance > Widgets
- Create Menu – takes you to Appearance > Menus for adding a new menu
- General Settings – takes to to Settings > General
- Writing Settings – takes you to Settings > Writing
- Reading Settings – takes you to Settings > Reading
- Discussion Settings – takes you to Settings > Discussion
- Media Settings – takes you to Settings > Media
- Permalink Settings – takes you to Settings > Permalinks
- Tools – takes you to the Tools page
- Import – takes you to Tools > Import
Post Type Actions
The Post Type Actions are really cool because they are generated dynamically based on the post types registered on your site.
- {Post Type Single Name} -> Add – takes you to the Add New screen for the specified post type
- {Post Type Name} -> Edit – takes you to the main overview page for the specified post type
- {Post Type Name} -> View – takes you to the main overview page for the specified post type (same as edit)
An example command that you could enter is Book -> Add, which would take you to the Add New screen for the Books post type (assuming you have a books post type).
Taxonomy Actions
The Taxonomy Actions are exactly like the Post Type Actions, but for taxonomies.
- {Taxonomy Single Name} -> Add – takes you to the Add New screen for the specified taxonomy
- {Taxonomy Name} -> Edit – takes you to the main overview page for the specified taxonomy
- {Taxonomy Name} -> View – takes you to the main overview page for the specified taxonomy (same as edit)
Search Actions
WP Butler has a really slick search feature built in that lets you search for posts by simply entering any search term into the command dialog.
If posts are found that match your search query, the results will be displayed below the input field. Clicking on a result will take you to the Edit page for that particular post.
A Hidden Gem
I absolutely love it when plugin developers build fun surprises into their code. WP Butler includes a random option that will take you to a completely random page of your Dashboard. Simply type Surprise Me and WP Butler will redirect you somewhere.
The only reason I knew about this little hidden gem was by looking at the source code for the plugin, so take this as an encouragement to explore the source of plugins you use (if you’re into that kind of thing).
You never know what you might find 🙂
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