Admin Columns Pro is a premium WordPress plugin that streamlines the process of administrating content on your website.
It allows you to add and remove the columns on your administration screens. I have been a big fan of the plugin since using the free version many years ago.
The core version of WordPress lets you administrate every type of post type in the same way; whether it be posts, pages, comments, or a unique custom post type that has been added through your theme or through a WordPress plugin. All items are listed in a table in which data can be sorted by specific columns.
The screen options menu allows you to define how many items are displayed on a given page. You can also hide columns; which allows you to customise what columns are displayed, and which are not.
Admin Columns Pro expands this functionality considerably. In addition to the default columns that are available for each post type, the plugin introduces over 90 new custom column options.
Items can be sorted and filtered using these new columns. This makes administrating content much more effective.
Let us take a closer look at how the plugin works.
Configuring Your Columns
The main page of the plugin settings area allows you to customise your columns. Every post type (posts, pages, attachments, etc) and taxonomy (categories, tags, etc) active on your website is displayed at the top of the page.
The plugin initially displays columns for posts. Six default WordPress columns are highlighted: Title, Author, Categories, Tags, Comments, and Date. Each column can be reordered by simply dragging and dropping a particular column into a different position. Or if you prefer, you can completely remove the column so that it will never be displayed.
The width of each column can be adjusted by sliding a marker left or right. You can also change the name of the column. Both of these features help you dictate what columns get priority in your administration pages.
Filtering, editing, and sorted, can also be enabled or disabled on a column by column basis.
The column types that are displayed will depend on the post type or taxonomy you are modifying. With blog posts, you can add many useful columns such as number of attachments, last modified, post format, and word count.
What Admin Columns Pro does is give you the freedom to customise admin columns as you see fit. For example, if you do not use tags, remove them from your admin screens.
The great thing about Admin Columns Pro is that adding and removing columns only takes seconds. This allows you to change your columns when necessary.
For example, if I wanted to find the 10 longest blog posts on my blog, I could add the word count column and then sort blog posts from highest to lowest. This would save me trawling through hundreds of blog posts to determine the longest blog posts manually.
Another feature I found useful was inline editing. It allows you to quickly edit items through the main admin screen. This saves you from having to go into the post to make the change.
A number of column types also support filtering. In the core version of WordPress, blog posts and pages can be filtered by date or by category. Admin Columns Pro allows you to extend this and filter items by author, comment count, user role, page template, and more.
Essentially, what Admin Columns Pro does is take the existing WordPress admin interface and improve it.
Plugin Settings
The plugin settings page allows you to enable and disable a few options such as whether inline editing is enabled for custom fields.
Automatic updates are supported if you enter your license information on this page. You can also reset all plugin settings. This will delete all custom columns you have created.
I noted earlier that you can customise Admin Columns Pro as and when needed. You need not worry about losing all of your customised columns if you do this as the plugin boasts export and import functionality.
Modified columns can quickly be backed up and restored at any time via text or PHP. This tool is also useful for transferring column settings from one website to another.
Available Addons
Two addons are available for Admin Columns Pro that add support for Advanced Custom Fields and WooCommerce.
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is a custom field management WordPress plugin that integrates beautifully with Admin Columns Pro. The addon lets you use any of the custom fields you created using ACF as columns. It also allows you to edit data inline.
The WooCommerce addon is a must if you run a WooCommerce powered online store. It adds seven additional columns for your product page and another two columns for your orders page.
Pricing
Admin Columns Pro is a GPL friendly WordPress plugin that only restricts support and automatic updates.
The personal licence retails at $79 per year and offers support for one website via a discussion forum. The business license retails at $149 per years and increases support up to four websites. Direct email support is also provided with this license.
The developer license retails at $249 per year and allows support for an unlimited number of websites. Direct email support is provided with that license too.
Both the business license and developer license include the Advanced Custom Fields and WooCommerce addons. The WordPress plugin Pods is also compatible with Admin Columns Pro.
In addition to forum support and email support, Admin Columns Pro has a useful Documentation area that shows you how to use the plugin.
Admin Columns Pro also offers a 60 day money back guarantee from the date of purchase.
Final Thoughts
There are many functionality WordPress plugins that I have tested and thought “Why is this not part of WordPress already?”. Admin Columns Pro is such a plugin. It offers useful customisation options that I would love to see added to the core version of WordPress one day. To me, that is the sign of a great plugin.
As a content website grows, it becomes more difficult to find the content you want in WordPress. By installing Admin Columns Pro, finding content and editing content becomes much more efficient.
You can see the plugin in action in the video below.
I hope you enjoyed this look at Admin Columns Pro. Please visit the official website to learn more about what the plugin can do.
As always, if you have any questions or thoughts regarding this review, please leave a comment below.
Thanks,
Kevin
