Have you ever noticed the three horizontal dots next to each of your blog posts and wondered what they are for? 

These three dots are known by numerous names, my favourite being a ‘Meatball Menu.’

“Not sure what I’m referring too? Here’s a screenshot pointing out the meatball menus. 

But what happens when you click on a meatball menu? This –

The three horizontal dots change to three vertical dots (known as a Kebab Menu), and eight options appear. 

Let’s investigate each option. 

Edit

• Click this button to edit or update a post. Don’t forget to press the Update button to save any changes you make. 

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View

• This button does so much more than just show you a preview of your post. It also shows a preview of the post as it appears on a desktop computer, tablet and phone. 

• And if you click on the Search & Social button, you’ll also to be able to preview your post as it will appear on Facebook, Twitter, and as a Google search. 
• I recommend you always preview your post first to ensure that it’s mobile-friendly, especially given that the majority of people view blog posts on tablets and phones. 

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Stats

• Click this button to check the latest daily, weekly, monthly and yearly stats of a post. 
• You’ll also be able to view which other bloggers have pressed the ‘like’ button on the post. 

 

• Hover your mouse over any of the profile icons to display the name of that blogger’s blog.
• However, a name will only appear if they have a WordPress.Com blog. It does not work for self-hosted blogs.
• Click on an icon to view a list of all the blog posts of that blogger, how many followers they have, and a follow button (WordPress.Com bloggers only).
• If you’re already following them, the ‘follow’ button will be replaced with the word ‘following.’ 

 

• Press the Settings icon (under the follow button) to display and set notifications settings for that blog. 

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Comments

• Along the top, you can view the following information for a post. 

• How many comments it has received.
• How many comments are pending (waiting for approval).
• How many comments have been approved.
• How many comments you or WordPress has marked as spam.
• How many comments you sent to the trash bin.
• Your replies to comments also show on this page.

• You can also sort comments out by newest first and oldest first.

There is also a ‘bulk edit‘ button that allows you to perform a command (approve, unapprove, send to spam, send to trash) with just one click. However, the ‘bulk edit’ is only done per page, so if you have lots of comments, you’ll need to bulk edit each page.

• You can also perform the following –

• Approve a comment.
• Mark and send a comment to the spam folder.
• Send a comment to the trash bin.
• Like a comment.
• Edit a comment.
• Reply to a comment.

To the right of each comment, is a ‘User Info‘ button. Clicking on this button reveals the following information. 

• The name of the commenter’s WordPress blog. 
• The commenter’s email address.
• A link to their blog.
• The I.P address of the commenter.

On the following image, I’ve blurred out the email and I.P address as this is personal information which should never be revealed on a blog post.

Did you notice something else in the above image? Did you see the ‘Block User‘ button? This is my most significant discovery when clicking on ‘User Info.’ If you press ‘Block User,’ any further comments from that user on any of your blog posts are sent directly to your WordPress trash folder. 

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Share

• This is a neat button which allows you to share details of the post to all the social media accounts you have connected to your WordPress blog. 
• Click on the ‘Share Post‘ button to share the post.

• The preview button displays how your post will look on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr.
• You can also manage all your social media connections by clicking on ‘Manage Connections.’  

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Copy Post

• This is my favourite of all the options on the Kebab Menu.
• Not only will clicking on this button duplicate your post, but the categories and tags of the post are also copied over. 
• This is especially beneficial if you run a daily/weekly/monthly blog challenge, series, or promotional posts on your blog.
• It’s saved me lots of time in not having to copy and paste or reenter links, images, text, tags, and categories. 
• I also use the ‘copy post’ function for posts which have the same layout (such as my ‘Wordless Wednesday’ and ‘Flashback Friday’ posts). 
• However, if you write excerpts for your blog posts, remember to change the excerpt before publishing the post. Otherwise, (as I discovered on one of my posts) the excerpt may not make sense. 

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Copy Link

• A link to the post is copied to the clipboard of the device you are using. You can then paste the link into an email, message, website, blog post, etc. 

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Trash

• Clicking this button will send your post to your trash folder.
• If you click it by mistake, you can reinstate the post from the trash folder.

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Let’s wrap things up

• There are eight hidden options available to WordPress.Com users on the page that displays all their blog posts.
• The options are hidden behind a menu known as a meatball menu.
• When opened, the meatball menu opens up a kebab menu that lists all the options available.
• Some of the options do exactly as they say on the can.
• However, other options lead to lots more options and functions.
• The comments option has an hidden ‘Block User‘ button – great for blocking comments from those you don’t want leaving comments anymore.
• No need to copy and paste anymore – The copy option not only copies an existing blog post, it also copies over the categories and tags you have on that post.
• It’s worth checking out all of the options, especially as some of them are time saving functions.

Have you ever used any of the options and functions behind the meatball and kebab menus?

If you have any questions regarding this post, please leave them in the comments section.

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