A developer once added a “Custom Links” box to your menu screen, and now it is gone. Or a tutorial tells you to fill in the post excerpt, and there is no excerpt box anywhere on your screen. Nothing is broken. In almost every case the box has simply been hidden, and WordPress Screen Options is where you bring it back.
The tab is easy to overlook, it does slightly different things on each screen, and the block editor does not use it at all. Once you have seen it on the three or four screens an owner actually uses, missing boxes stop being a mystery.
What WordPress Screen Options actually are
On many admin screens there is a small tab in the top-right corner, just under the dark toolbar, labelled Screen Options. Next to it there is usually a Help tab. Click Screen Options and a panel slides down with checkboxes and sometimes a number field. Whatever you tick or untick changes what that one screen shows.
Three things are worth knowing before you start:
- Each screen has its own options. The panel on Posts is different from the panel on Appearance → Menus or on the Dashboard.
- The choices belong to your user account. If you hide a column, your colleague still sees it when they log in. That is why two people on the same site can describe “different” screens.
- Not every screen has the tab. Settings pages, for example, usually do not. Some plugin screens add their own options and some add none.
If you are still finding your way around the admin area, our tour of the WordPress dashboard and its menus explains what each menu item is for. This page is part of a wider beginner’s guide to running WordPress written for business owners rather than developers.
Bringing back hidden boxes on the Menus screen
This is the screen where the missing-box problem comes up most often. It applies to classic themes, which use Appearance → Menus. Block themes build menus with the Navigation block in the Site Editor instead, so if you do not see a Menus item under Appearance, this section is not for you.
- Go to Appearance → Menus.
- Click Screen Options at the top right.
- Under Boxes, tick the ones you need. Typical choices are Pages, Posts, Custom Links and Categories, plus Tags, Formats and any custom post types your theme or plugins add.
- Under Show advanced menu properties, tick Link Target if you want the “Open link in a new tab” option on each menu item. You can also turn on Title Attribute, CSS Classes, Link Relationship (XFN) and Description here.
- Click Screen Options again to close the panel. The changes apply straight away; there is no save button.
The new boxes appear in the left column, under “Add menu items”. The advanced properties show up when you expand a menu item on the right. If a menu you have built still does not appear on the site afterwards, that is a different issue, covered in what to check when a WordPress menu is not showing.
Columns and page size on the Posts and Pages lists
The lists under Posts, Pages, Media (list view), Comments and Users all have Screen Options too. Here they control the table rather than boxes.
Columns
You can hide or show columns such as Author, Categories, Tags, Comments and Date. Plugins often add their own: an SEO plugin may add a score or a title column, a page builder may add a status column, WooCommerce adds several on its product list. If the table is so wide that the titles wrap onto three lines, untick the columns you never read.
Number of items per page
The Pagination field sets how many rows load at once. The default is 20. Raising it helps when you want to scan all your pages on one screen. Do not push it very high on a big site, because a long list takes longer to load and can time out on slower hosting. Type the number and click Apply; this is one of the few panels with a button.
View mode
On the Posts list you may also see a choice between a compact view and an extended view, which shows a short excerpt under each title. It is purely a matter of taste.
Missing boxes in the WordPress editor
People get stuck here, because the block editor has no Screen Options tab. Same idea, different place.
In the block editor
- Open any post or page for editing.
- If the right-hand sidebar is closed, click the Settings icon near the top right (it looks like a square split into two panels). Many “missing” boxes are simply inside a closed sidebar.
- Still missing? Click the three vertical dots at the top right and choose Preferences.
- On the General tab, find the Document settings section. It lists the panels the sidebar can show, such as Featured image, Excerpt, Discussion and Page attributes, each with an on/off switch.
- Switch on the one you need and close the window.
Two catches. First, a panel only appears if the content type supports it. Pages in many setups have no Excerpt panel, and the Discussion panel can disappear if a plugin has switched comments off for that content type. Second, plugins add their own panels, and some of them place their settings in a separate sidebar opened from an icon in the top bar rather than in the main one. If an SEO plugin’s box has vanished, look for its icon up there.
Custom fields deserve a mention. Older guides tell you to tick “Custom Fields” in Screen Options. In the block editor the option sits in the Preferences window instead; enabling it reloads the editor and adds a Custom fields box below the content. Most owners never need it, so only turn it on if a plugin’s instructions ask you to.
In the classic editor
If your site still uses the Classic Editor plugin, or a page builder that falls back to it, the old Screen Options tab is back. Tick Excerpt, Discussion, Slug, Author, Custom Fields or Revisions to show those boxes under the editor. You can drag the boxes into a different order and collapse the ones you rarely open.
When the editor itself misbehaves rather than hiding things, for example blocks that will not save or a blank editing screen, see our post on common block editor problems.
When Screen Options does not solve it
Sometimes you tick the box and nothing changes. A few likely reasons:
- Your role does not allow it. An Editor or Author account will not see menus, plugin settings or some panels at all, whatever Screen Options says. Ask whoever manages the site to check your role.
- A plugin removed the box. Some admin-cleanup or security plugins hide screens and panels for certain users on purpose.
- The Screen Options tab itself is missing. A few plugins hide it, and a JavaScript error on the page can stop the panel from opening. Try another browser, or temporarily deactivate the plugin you installed most recently.
- The box belongs to a deactivated plugin. An SEO box or a form box only exists while that plugin is active.
Nothing in Screen Options changes your content or what visitors see. If you hide the wrong column or box, open the panel and tick it again. That is the whole undo.
Hidden dashboard widgets work the same way. If your opening screen is crowded with plugin boxes, our guide to clearing clutter from the WordPress dashboard covers that screen in detail.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my colleague see boxes that I cannot see?
Screen Options and editor preferences are saved for each user separately. Your colleague may have ticked boxes you have not, or they may have a different role with access to more screens. Compare your Screen Options panels side by side, and check both roles under Users before assuming something is wrong with the site.
Will hiding a column or box delete the information in it?
No. Hiding only changes what your screen displays. The excerpt, the custom field value or the author name stays stored with the post exactly as before, and the front of the site is unaffected. Tick the option again and the box returns with its contents intact.
Can I set Screen Options for all users at once?
Not from the WordPress dashboard. Each person controls their own panels. If you need everyone to see the same simplified screens, an admin-customisation plugin or a small code snippet can set defaults or remove boxes by role, though for a small team it is usually simpler to show each person the tab once.
The Link Target option is ticked but my menu links still open in the same tab. Why?
Ticking Link Target only adds the option to each menu item. You still need to expand the individual menu item, tick its “Open link in a new tab” checkbox and click Save Menu. Some themes also handle links in their own way, so clear any caching plugin and check again in a private window.
Occasionally a box is gone for a reason none of these screens will show you, such as a theme update or an admin plugin that strips panels by role. If you have been through Screen Options, Preferences and your role and still cannot find it, ask our WordPress support team to take a look.
Next in this series: How to Add a Favicon in WordPress (Site Icon Setting)
