Post Category Filter (WP Admin) vs Global Meta Box Order

Post Category Filter allows you to filter your post categories and custom taxonomies by adding a fast and intuitive search box on top of the term lists. As you type, the list updates instantly and shows only the categories or terms that match your query, making navigation quick even on sites with hundreds or thousands of entries. This plugin is designed for users who work with large WordPress websites, complex content structures, or extensive taxonomy sets. Instead of scrolling endlessly through long category lists, you can simply type a few letters and immediately locate the term you need. It provides a smoother editorial workflow and helps reduce time spent searching for the right category during post creation or editing. Post Category Filter works seamlessly inside the WordPress admin interface and supports all public taxonomies, including custom taxonomies created by themes or plugins. It does not modify your categories or database in any way. It simply adds an efficient, lightweight search layer to help you manage and assign terms more effectively. If you maintain a high volume of content, run news or magazine style websites, or organize your posts through detailed taxonomies, this plugin can significantly improve your daily publishing workflow. It is a simple but powerful solution for anyone looking to optimize category management, streamline content editing, and enhance usability in the WordPress admin area. Want to contribute? You can follow the Github repository and submit issues or pull requests. Adoption Notice This plugin represents the continued development of the original “Admin Category Filter” created by Javier Villanueva (@jahvi). The project has been revived with the intention of ensuring long-term stability, modern compatibility, and responsible maintenance while preserving the core functionality that made the original plugin widely used. Credits Original author: Javier Villanueva (jahvi) Maintainer and current developer: Ivijan Stefan Stipic (INFINITUM FORM) Legal Notice This plugin retains the original GPLv2 license from the upstream version authored by Javier Villanueva (@jahvi). All new contributions are © 2025 Ivijan Stefan Stipic and released under the same GPLv2-or-later license.

Intuitively harmonize meta box positions and screen column layout for all backend users of your WordPress installation. Quick Overview Install and activate the plugin Switch to a post, a page, a custom post type, or the dashboard Change the order and position of a meta box (or all of them) Change the column layout Switch to a different user (maybe with the help of the User Switching plugin) See your changes applied Installation Download and unpack, then move the folder ‘global-meta-box-order’ into your ‘plugins’ folder. Head over to your WordPress installation and activate the plugin in the admin area. Rollback The plugin doesn’t write anything to the database, it just reads. So it never touches any user settings, but instead filters them on a per request basis. Though all applied changes appear to be permanent from a user’s perspective, they are not. Just deactivate the plugin and see all changes disappear. Activate it again, and they will all be reapplied. How It Works The plugin operates on a blueprint user whose screen settings for meta boxes (visibility, position and ordering), and column layout are cloned for all other backend users on the fly. By default, this blueprint user is the first admin user found, so you’ll need to be logged in as that user to globally change screen settings. For how to change the default blueprint user as well as other settings, please refer to the Configuration section below. Where It Works By default, the plugin kicks in when a user: edits a post edits a page edits a custom post type hits the dashboard What It Changes It will always change the meta boxes visibility, ordering, and column positions the column layout When told so, it will also remove the screen options box immobilize all boxes, so they can’t be moved around by your users anymore Usage Log in as your blueprint user. By default, the is the first admin user found in your system. Select an editing screen (post, page, custom post type) or the dashboard, move the meta boxes around, change their screen settings and the screen’s column layout. Switch to some user to review your settings, switch back to adjust them. When done, you might want to lock your views down by removing the screen options box and by locking the boxes’ sort order. Your blueprint user, of course, wil not be affected by this. Configuration The backend integration is kept to a minimum. No navigation entry, no options page, no entry in the database. Instead, the place to go to configure the plugin is your theme’s functions.php. By the way: You don’t need to configure the plugin. As long as it finds an admin user, it will work just fine. Preparation Fire up an editor, load your functions.php, and copy and paste the following code into it. The idea is to have some sort of container to do the configuration in, but do it any way you like. For brevity, we’ll assume the plugin is loaded and active, so we won’t check for that (see this nice write-up on QueryLoop on some ways to do it, though). if (is_admin()) { // The path to the configuation is rather long, so let's // make us a shorthand. class_alias('\GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config', 'MetaBoxConfig'); // Add MetaBoxConfig below this line ... } Now we are ready to add some of the configuration settings below to adjust the plugin’s default behaviour. You might also want to have a look at the example configuration near the end of this document. Please keep in mind that you need to be logged in as any user but your blueprint user to see a setting applied. Again, the User Switching plugin might come in handy. Screens To Operate On By default, the plugin operates on the post, page, and custom post type editing screens, and the dashboard. You can change this as follows: // Operate on post and page screens only, leave the dashboard alone. // This will still include custom post types. MetaBoxConfig::$filter = array('post', 'page'); // Exclude custom post types MetaBoxConfig::$include_cpts = false; // Allow custom post types... MetaBoxConfig::$include_cpts = true; // ...but not all of them MetaBoxConfig::$exclude = array('acme_product'); MetaBoxConfig in the example above is assumed to be an alias to \GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config as shown in the preparation section above. Changing the Blueprint User Register a function that returns a user id, like so: MetaBoxConfig::$getBlueprintUserId = function () { return 1; }; Or, more involved: MetaBoxConfig::$getBlueprintUserId = function () { $user = get_user_by('slug', 'jane'); return $user ? $user->ID : false; }; MetaBoxConfig in the example above is assumed to be an alias to \GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config as shown in the preparation section above. Locking Views By default, all users will be able to interact with the screen options box, and to move around the meta boxes themselves. There is a rationale behind it, but to cut things short, this is how you might want to change it: // No screen options MetaBoxConfig::$remove_screen_options = true; // Meta boxes can't be moved anymore MetaBoxConfig::$lock_meta_box_order = true; MetaBoxConfig in the example above is assumed to be an alias to \GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config as shown in the preparation section above. Example Configuration if (is_admin()) { // Make sure plugin is active if (class_exists('\GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config')) { // Make a long name short. class_alias('\GlobalMetaBoxOrder\Config', 'MetaBoxConfig'); // Settings MetaBoxConfig::$filter = array('post', 'page', 'dashboard'); // default MetaBoxConfig::$include_cpts = true; // default MetaBoxConfig::$getBlueprintUserId = function () { return 1; }; MetaBoxConfig::$exclude = array('acme_product'); MetaBoxConfig::$remove_screen_options = true; MetaBoxConfig::$lock_meta_box_order = true; } } On Moving the WYSIWYG Editor The position of WordPress’ WYSIWYG editor is fixed, and can’t be changed out of the box (mostly because it lacks a box around it). There are reasons for this, but if you want to have a positionable editor anyway, you might want to have a look at our very own Movable Editor plugin. If, on the other hand, if you want to place one specific box above the editor, you might want to check out this answer on stackexchange.