How to Edit the Tab Appearance of Your WordPress Website
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) that powers millions of websites around the world. It’s a great tool for anyone looking to build a website. Let’s explore how to edit the appearance of the tab on your WordPress website so it fits your needs.
Basic CSS Knowledge
You’ll need to have a basic knowledge of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to make any changes to the look and feel of your website. CSS is the language the web operates on and allows you to change the look and style of your website without needing to touch a line of code.
Learning CSS is not difficult. There are free courses such as Build Your Own WordPress Website with CSS from WordPress.com (this page will help you learn more). You can use WordPress.org to set up a local copy of WordPress for editing purposes. Once you’ve downloaded the WordPress software, you can use the following steps to build and launch your own WordPress website:
Step 1: Log in to your WordPress site
Navigate to Dashboard > Appearance in the WordPress dashboard. You’ll see a screen similar to the one below:
You can click on the cog button to the right of the screen shot above to open the dashboard preferences. You’ll see a few options here including Site Title, Header Image, and Background Color. As you might expect, you can use these preferences to change the name, header image, and background color of your WordPress website. (Note: You’ll learn more about these options in the following tutorials.)
Step 2: Find and Edit the Style of the Tab That You Want to Change
In this step, we’ll walk you through editing the appearance of a specific tab on your WordPress website. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll use the Dashboard navigation menu to navigate to the General section of your WordPress dashboard. Once you’re in the General section of the Dashboard, you’ll see a few options for the navigation menu located above the editor area of your WordPress website:
- Blog
- Forum
- Products
- Services
We’ll use the Blog option for this tutorial so you can follow along. When you click on the Blog option, you’ll see a screen shot similar to the one below show two categories published on your WordPress site:
- Breaking News
- Op-Ed
You’ll notice that each category includes a list of posts. To the right of each post is a small image depicting three dots along with the silhouette of a person. These are the three basic tab options you’ll see at the top of the editor area on your WordPress website: Blog, Forum, and Products.
Step 3: Click on the Edit button next to the Post You Want to Edit
Once you’ve selected the navigation option that you want to use for this tutorial, you’ll be taken to the post page for that category. In most cases, you’ll see two posts displayed on a page. Clicking on the first post’s title will take you to the edit screen for that specific post. To edit a post, simply click on the Edit button next to the post title.
You can see below that the post’s title, date, and content are displayed at the top of the screen while the post’s comments and metadata are located below:
- Edit: Click on this button to edit the post(Note: You can also hit the enter key on your keyboard to initiate the same action.)
- Preview: Preview the post before publishing it(Note: You can also hit Ctrl+P to open the preview pane.)
- Cancel: Click on this button to cancel the editing process
If you’ve worked with WordPress before, you’ll notice that the above image is similar to the one you might see when creating a new post. You can use the edit button to make some small changes to the content of a post before publishing it. When you’re ready to publish your post, simply hit the Publish button to the right of the edit button.
Some users prefer to edit their posts using a traditional word processor such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. If you want to do some prep work using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, simply locate the post you want to edit in your WordPress dashboard and click on the Edit button to the right of the post’s title. Your post’s content will be displayed in a small window on your computer screen while you make your changes.
Step 4: Preview Your Changes
Once you’ve finished making changes to the content of your post, you can preview them by clicking on the Preview button located at the top of the screen. Doing this will pop up a small window showing you how your post looks. Simply click on the Preview button again to confirm your changes.
Step 5: Hit the Publish button to Finish
Once you’ve confirmed your changes, you can hit the Publish button to the right of the Preview button.
You’ll see the post’s metadata and comments below its content while a small window indicating your post’s status will appear at the top of the screen. Once you’ve published your post, it will be available for viewing by anyone with access to the site. You can click on the permalink (blog article) displayed at the top of the editor area next to the post’s content to visit the blog article’s page.
How to Change the Appearance of the Tab on Your WordPress Website
Let’s say you’ve followed the steps outlined above and created a WordPress website for your personal use. You’ve selected the Blog option from the Dashboard navigation menu to view the latest news articles. However, you want the tab to display the Forum option rather than the Blog option. You can easily make this change by clicking on the three dots to the right of the Blog option and choosing the Forum option from the drop-down menu. This will replace the current Blog option on your WordPress dashboard.
To make further changes to the layout of your WordPress website, simply follow the steps outlined above. Simply locate the tab/button you want to change and hit the Edit button. When you’re finished editing, click on the Preview button next to the post’s title to view its changes.
If you’re happy with what you see, hit the Publish button to confirm your changes.