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Support Hub
Comments are a feature of blogs which allow readers to respond to Posts. Typically, readers simply provide their own thoughts regarding the content of the post, but they may also provide links to other resources, generate discussion, or simply compliment the author for a well-written post. Comments allow you to interact more with your site visitors as well as generate feedback and discussion on your Posts.
Comments can be controlled and regulated through the use of filters for language and content, and if you prefer, can also be queued for approval before they are visible on the web site. This is useful in dealing with comment spam.
When you click on the Comments menu option, you’ll be shown a list of all the comments on your site.
At the top of the screen there are links that allow you filter the comment list to only show the comments that are Pending, Approved, Marked as Spam or that are in the Trash. The number in brackets will advise how many there are for that particular type.
As well as the standard settings that allow you to manage your comments, the default WordPress install comes with an excellent plugin that helps to filter out spam from your comments. This plugin is called Akismet.
After activating the Akismet plugin, you need to supply it with an API Key. You can grab an API key and find out more information on the Akismet website.
When hovering your cursor over each row in the list of Comments, a few links will appear beneath the comment.
If you would like to change the status of numerous Comments at once, click the checkboxes next to the Comment(s) you would like to change and then choose either Unapprove, Approve, Mark as Spam or Move to Trash from the Bulk Actions dropdown list at the top of the page. After selecting the appropriate option, click the Apply button.
To respond to a comment that someone has written on one of your Posts, simply hover the mouse over the comment and click the Reply link when it appears. An edit field will then appear beneath the comment where you can type your reply.
When you’ve written your comment, click the Reply button or alternatively, click Cancel to stop replying and cancel your editing.
The editor that appears when replying or editing a comment (using either the Reply, Quick Edit or Edit links) is much like the editor when creating or editing a Page or Post, only not as intuitive. At the top of the editor there are numerous formatting buttons. These buttons provide you with basic html formatting capabilities when composing a new reply comment or editing an existing comment.
The buttons work in two ways. Clicking a button without highlighting any text first, will simply insert the opening html tag relevant for that button. As an example, clicking the Bold button will insert the <strong> html tag into your comment. Clicking the Bold button again will close the tag by inserting the closing </strong> tag. If you highlight some text prior to clicking a button, both the opening and closing tags will be inserted around that highlighted text. For example, highlighting the text, ‘bold text’, prior to clicking the Bold button will insert ‘<strong>bold text</strong>’.
| Bold – Bold text |
| Italic – Italicise text |
| Link – Used to insert a website link. When the button is clicked a pop-up window will appear where you type in the URL that you would like to link to |
| Blockquote – Used as a way of showing a quote. How this looks will be entirely dependent on the Theme that your site is currently using |
| Delete – Used as a way of showing deleted text. How this looks will be dependent on the Theme but is usually done by showing the text with a strikethrough |
| Insert – Used as a way of showing inserted text. How this looks will be dependent on the Theme but is usually done by showing the text with an underline |
| Image – Used to insert an image into the comment. When the button is clicked a pop-up window will appear where you type in the URL of the image that you would like inserted |
| Unordered List – Used to insert an unordered (or un-numbered) list |
| Ordered List – Used to insert an ordered (or numbered) list |
| List Item – Used to insert a list item into your ordered or un-ordered list |
| Code – Used for indicating a piece of code |
| Close Tags – Used to close open tags. If for example, you clicked both the Bold and Italic buttons to insert their opening tags, clicking the close tags button will insert both of the matching closing tags, in the correct order |
There are two ways to edit a comment. Once you hover over an individual comment you can click the Quick Edit link or the Edit link. Both perform a similar function except that the Edit option also allows you to mark the comment as either Approved, Pending or Spam as well as change the Date and Time.
Clicking Quick Edit will replace the comment with an editor that allows you to update the comment, the comment authors name, email address and URL.
Once you have finished, click Update Comment to save your changes or click Cancel to cancel your changes and return to the list of comments.
Clicking Edit will display the editor on a new page. Like the Quick Edit option, you can update the comment, the comment authors name, email address and URL. The Edit option also gives you the ability to set the comment Status and change the comment Date and time. The comment status can be set to Approved, Pending or Spam. You also have the option to move the item to the Trash by clicking on the Move to Trash link.
You can change the date and time that the comment was submitted by clicking on the Edit link next to the date and time. After clicking Edit, several fields appear below the original date and time. Update the fields if required and click the OK button to save the new date and time.
Once you have finished updating the comment, click the Update button to save your changes. If you want to cancel your changes, click the browser Back button or click on the Comments menu option to return to the list of comments.
If an inappropriate comment has been submitted, you may wish to Unapprove it. This will stop the comment from displaying on your site. Hover your cursor over
the comment and click the Unapprove link to unapprove the comment.
Comments that are already Unapproved will be displayed with a different coloured background within your list of comments. They will also be highlighted with a red vertical bar down the left side of the row. Hovering your cursor over the comment will display an Approve link instead of an Unapprove link.
If a spam comment has been posted to your site you can mark it as spam simply by hovering your cursor over the comment and clicking the Spam link. If you’re using the Akismet plugin and you come across a spam comment that Akismet missed, marking it as spam will help Akismet learn and it will be less likely to miss similar spam in the future.
If you simply want to remove a comment, hover your cursor over it and click the Trash link.
To empty the Trash, click on the Trash link at the top of the page to display all the comments that have been marked as Trash. This link will be displayed along with a number within brackets which indicates how many comments are marked as Trash. To permanently remove all these comments, click the Empty Trash button. You will not be prompted for confirmation.
To remove all the spam comments, click on the Spam link at the top of the page to display all the comments that have been marked as spam. This link will be displayed along with a number in brackets which indicates how many spam comments there are. To permanently remove all these comments, click the Empty Spam button. You will not be prompted for confirmation.
You can also delete a single spam comment permanently by clicking on the Delete Permanently link that appears when hovering your cursor over each row. You will not be prompted for confirmation.
If you find there are comments that have been marked as spam that shouldn’t be, click the checkboxes next to them and select Not Spam from the Bulk Actions drop down at the top of the page. Click the Apply button to confirm your choice. Alternatively, click the Not Spam link that appears when hovering your cursor over each row.
