How to Change Author in WordPress: Quick Guide

When it comes to content creation, managing and correctly attributing credit is essential. Learning how to change authors in WordPress is straightforward and can be accomplished by users of all skill levels.

WordPress provides the tools necessary for fine-tuning these details, whether you’re a website administrator looking to maintain authorship accuracy or an SEO specialist ensuring that author signals contribute effectively to search engine rankings.

Changing the author in WordPress can enhance the user experience for your audience by presenting them with content connected to the most appropriate creator. This can be especially important when posts are collaborative or when a team member leaves or changes roles.

FAQ

What steps should I take to launch a WordPress site?

To change the author of multiple posts, go to the Posts section and use the Bulk Actions feature. Choose the posts you want to update, then select Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu.
After that, you can assign a new author to the selected posts.

Can I add another author to WordPress?

Yes, you can add a new author to your WordPress site by navigating to Users in your dashboard. Then, select Add New and fill out the new user’s information.
Make sure to assign the user role as Author before saving.

How do I change the author base in WordPress?

Changing the author base requires editing the permalink structure. You can do this with a plugin or by adding code to your theme’s functions.php file.
If you’re unfamiliar with coding, using a plugin to modify the author slug is recommended.

How do I remove an author from my WordPress site?

To remove an author, head to Users and locate the author you wish to remove. Then, select Delete. You’ll be prompted to assign the author’s existing posts to another user before the author is permanently removed from your site.

Understanding WordPress author roles

Before changing the author of a post in WordPress, it’s essential to understand the different user roles and their capabilities within the WordPress ecosystem.

Exploring user roles

WordPress has several predefined user roles, each with its own set of capabilities. When you create a new user account, assigning the correct role determines what the user can and cannot do on your site.

Below is an outline of the primary roles, including the Author role:

Administrator: Has access to all administrative features within a single site.
Editor: Can publish and manage posts, including the posts of other users.
Author: Can publish and manage their own posts and upload files.
Contributor: Can write and manage their own posts but cannot publish them.
Subscriber: Only manages their user profile.

Here’s a closer look at the Author role:

Username creation: When setting up a new user as an author, you’ll choose their unique username, which identifies their user profile.
Capabilities: An author can create, edit, publish, and delete their own posts. They have the freedom to upload media to their posts but cannot modify or publish content written by others.
Account limitation: Unlike admins and editors, authors can’t access site-wide settings or manage other users’ content.

By understanding these roles and their capabilities, you ensure that your WordPress site maintains order and security, with each user granted permissions that align with their responsibilities.

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How to change the author in WordPress

Changing authors can ensure that credit is given where it’s due and contribute to the post’s integrity. It’s important to know how to change the author in WordPress when necessary.

When you should change authors

You may need to change the author if the post was initially credited incorrectly or if another team member contributed significantly and warrants recognition. Additionally, staff or post-ownership changes may necessitate an update of the author’s name.

Things to consider before you change authors

Before changing an author, review your WordPress theme’s settings, as the display of author names may vary. Also, ensure the new author has an existing profile on your WordPress site to be selected as a post author.

Using Quick Edit

To quickly change the author of individual posts in All Posts:

Navigate to your dashboard
Go to Posts > All Posts
Hover over the desired post
Click Quick Edit
Select the new author from the Authors dropdown menu
Press Update to save changes

Editing in Post Editor (classic and block)

In the Classic Editor:

Open the post
Look for the Author dropdown in the Post Editor below the text area
Choose the new author and click Update

If you don’t see the Author dropdown menu below the editor’s text area, you may need to enable it from the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen.

While editing a post, the Screen Options tab allows you to toggle the authors menu off and on.

For the Block Editor (Gutenberg):

Open the post
Click on the Post tab in the right sidebar
Find the Author section
Select the desired author from the dropdown
Click Update to save changes

How to change authors in bulk

To change the author for multiple posts at once using Bulk Actions:

Go to Posts > All Posts
Select the posts you want to change by checking their boxes
Choose Edit from the Bulk Actions dropdown
Click Apply
In the Bulk Edit panel, pick the new author from the dropdown
Hit the Update button to apply the changes to all selected posts

Managing authors

In WordPress, managing authors means understanding how to customize author profiles to maintain your site’s professionalism and clarity. These adjustments are essential for representing your authors correctly.

Changing the author’s display name

Step 1: Navigate to the Users section in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Click on the Edit link for the specific user you want to change.
A user's edit link is highlighted in red on the WordPress dashboard's Users, All Users page.

In the Name section, update the following fields:

First Name: Enter the author’s first name.
Last Name: Enter the author’s last name.
Nickname: Type in the desired nickname.

To change the display name publicly:

Click the dropdown menu labeled Display name publicly and choose from the available options, which include the author’s first name, last name, nickname, or combination.

A user's profile page with fields for first name, last name, nickname, and display as settings.

Changing an author’s slug

To alter an author’s slug, which is the URL-friendly version of the author’s name, you can use a plugin.

Note that the username itself cannot be changed here. See our guide to learn more about changing usernames in WordPress.

First, install and activate the Edit Author Slug plugin.

Go to the WordPress dashboard Plugins > Add New page.
Enter Edit Author Slug in the search box.
Click Install Now, then Activate.

After installation, an Edit Author Slug section appears on the user’s profile page. Here, choose a new slug or create a custom one.

Changing to a custom author slug in a user's profile.

How to change the author base in WordPress

The author base is the URL prefix before the author slug in the author page URL.

For example, WordPress uses author as the default author base, resulting in URLs like “https://yoursite.com/author/author-slug.”

To change this:

Step 1: You’ll need the Edit Author Slug plugin mentioned above.

Step 2: Go to Settings > Edit Author Slug in your WordPress admin area.

The WordPress dashboard's Settings, Edit Author Slug page.

You can then set a new Author Base by replacing the default author base with a custom term that suits your site. Don’t forget to scroll down and click Save Changes when you’re done.

Switching to a different author base using the Edit Author Slug plugin's settings.

Enhancing author profiles

Many plugins allow you to enhance author profiles and change the way WordPress displays authors on posts.

For example, PublishPress Authors is a popular choice that allows the addition of multiple authors and the customization of author pages.

First, install the plugin:

Go to Plugins > Add New
Type PublishPress Authors in the search bar
Click Install Now on the plugin
After installation, click Activate

Once installed, you can enhance author profiles by navigating to Authors > Authors and adding an author.

The Authors, Authors page lets you add authors to the plugin's configuration.

Once added to PublishPress Authors, you’ll find new options to Edit Author Profile for each user.

The WordPress dashboard's Users, All Users page displaying the Edit Author Profile link now available for each user.

In addition, this plugin allows you to set multiple authors in the post editor.

Adding multiple authors in the block editor's Post tab.

Similarly, Simple Author Box adds a responsive author box at the end of your posts, showing the author’s name, author bio, and social media profiles.

Key features to include in your author profile:

Biographical information: Highlight the author’s background, expertise, and other personal details.
Social media links: Integrate social media buttons for increased reader engagement.
Customization options: Utilize the plugin’s features to change the appearance of the author box to match your site’s theme.

Hiding author display on posts

WordPress sites often showcase the author’s name to highlight the person behind the content. However, there may be situations where you want to maintain a uniform voice or clean up the post interface by hiding the author’s display. This could improve the user experience or meet the stylistic preferences of your website’s theme.

Disable the user’s author box

If your theme supports it, you can turn off the author box in your WordPress theme settings to hide the author display on posts without using plugins.

Navigate to Appearance > Customize and look for the Author Box option. If your theme supports it, you can uncheck or toggle it off.

PublishPress Authors also allows you to do this under the Post tab in the post editor by checking the Disable post author box display option.

Disabling the author box display in the block editor's Authors section.

Edit CSS

For a more hands-on approach, you can use custom CSS to hide the author’s display name. Go to Appearance > Customize and then to the Additional CSS section to add the following style rule:

.author-name { 
    display: none; 
}

Replace .author-name with the appropriate CSS class or ID your theme uses for the author’s display name.

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Use a plugin to hide authors

Alternatively, using a plugin can offer a straightforward solution to hide the author’s name. Plugins like WPCode allow you to insert custom CSS or scripts that can remove the display of author names. Install the plugin, navigate to the custom code section, and add the same CSS snippet provided above to achieve this effect.

Instead of adding CSS, you can use a plugin like WP Meta and Date Remover. After you install and activate the plugin, you can choose to hide the author and date from posts.

Conclusion

Learning how to change the author in WordPress is straightforward and can be accomplished using various methods, depending on your needs. You can change the author of a single post directly from the post editor or change the authors of multiple posts using the bulk edit feature.

Whether you’re managing multi-author collaboration or updating content attribution for other reasons, these options in the WordPress dashboard provide the necessary control to maintain the accuracy and relevance of author details.