2023 Guide to WordPress Approval Workflow for Content

What Exactly is a Content Approval Workflow?

With teamwork, it is essential to develop a workflow. Workflows improve productivity, and creativity, and enhance seamless communication between all team members. If you run a WordPress site and work with a team of content developers to write and submit content (post) for approval, you will need a WordPress editorial workflow process to bring the team effort into perfect sync.

A WordPress editorial process lets you automate where your editors can assign jobs to your writers (authors and contributors), and the writers, in turn, can submit work to your editors for approval. With this type of workflow in place, you can always monitor work progress and tweak the parameters you have set to fit your current needs. The process of creating a WordPress content approval workflow can be divided into three steps:

• Determine the users you need (contributor, author, and editor)
• Set parameters for automating content approval and content workflow
• Test your workflow process

These three simple steps will enable you to have an unlimited workflow with other people.

Understanding User Roles

When you install WordPress, your site is immediately assigned five levels of users. Each level has its restriction and functionalities. The user levels include administrator, editor, author, contributor, and subscriber. For a WordPress editorial workflow, you will most likely need an editor, authors, and contributors. It's essential for you to understand the powers each role has over your site.

Workflow Automation for Content Approval

WordPress content approval workflow works precisely like real-world corporate workflows. When a task needs to be completed, there is a transparent chain of command. First, we have the creatives; second, supervisors oversee the work of a group of creatives; third, a project manager oversees the supervisors; fourth, the executive who the project managers report to, directly. In WordPress, the authors and contributors answer to an editor, and the editor is under the administrator.

Note: There is another level of user. If you are running a multi-site network, there is a role for the super admin who oversees all network activities.

Install a Workflow Plugin (or two or three)

• Install the following plugins: Publish Press, Publish Press Capabilities Pro, and Publish Press Checklist, and Oasis Workflow. Each Plugin performs a unique and essential role in your WordPress editorial workflow.
• To install a plugin, click on Plugin> Add New> Search for your desired Plugin> install and activate.
• Assign WordPress Roles: Go to Users> Add New> Author. Create Users who will be authors and repeat the same process (Users>Add New>Editors) for editors.
• Set author permission: With PublishPress Capabilities Pro, you can assign author permissions. Author permissions give the Author access to move work from one place to another as the work progresses. Ensure that you have installed Publish Press Capabilities Pro>> Go to the admin menu on your dashboard and click on 'Capabilities.' Set 'Control Custom Statuses' on. Second, in the center of your screen, you can choose the statuses available for your authors and your own post statuses. The statuses are: “Pitch, Assigned, In Progress, Pending Review.” Assigned refers to content that an editor has assigned to the author to write. In Progress refers to content that an author is working on at the moment. Pending Review refers to content completed by the author and is pending approval from the editor. Tick Pitch, In Progress, and Pending Review for your Author. Assigned must be left out as only an editor should be allowed to assign content or tasks.

Setting Editor Notifications for Editorial Workflow

Visit your dashboard. Click Publish Press> Notification>Add New. You will be taken to a Publish Press Notification setting page. Follow the instructions below to fill the ‘Notification Form':

• Title:
• Tick “Notify my editors when there is a new content from authors.”
• When to Notify:
• You can use this feature to notify your editor, yourself (admin), and authors when content has been assigned. You can also set a notification for your editor when an author puts content in ‘In Progress’ or moves it from draft to ‘Pending Review.’
• Subject:
• This defines the subject of the notification. Make the subject short and simple; for example: “An author submitted a post for review.”

Publish Posts With Checklists or Parameters

With the Publish Press checklist, you can set automated checklists that an author's content must pass before it can even be sent to an editor. This process makes the job easier for your editor, as works submitted to him would have passed through an automated checklist. Checklists include Categories, Tag, Featured Image, and Word Count.

Testing and Optimizing Your Workflow

At this point, you have successfully created a WordPress editorial workflow. To test your parameters, assign work from the editor user role to the author role, and confirm with your Author if a message was received. Send content from the author's role to pending review and confirm with your editor if a message was received regarding the post pending review.

The setting for the default WordPress roles allows authors to publish posts, edit, and even delete posts they have published (they cannot delete posts of other authors). The default jurisdiction gives an author a lot of power as he/she can wipe out all his posts from your site's front end and database anytime he/she so wishes. To limit an author's jurisdiction on a post:

• Install and activate the Capability Manager Enhanced Plugin
• Go to Users>>Capabilities
• You will be directed to the capabilities page
• Click “Select Role to View/Edit”
• Select Author and click on Load to get ‘Author WordPress Roles’
• Default setting allows the Author to be able to delete posts they write; however, to change this, uncheck the box next to 'delete published options' and 'delete.'
• Save

If you want to remove the restriction, repeat the steps you did above, and save. WordPress is versatile, and with it, you can always achieve a seamless workflow with innumerable numbers of contributors, authors, and editors. Always remember that as admin, you can control WordPress roles and reduce the functionalities of any user—regardless of the user role.