Deleting ‘Uncategorized’ From WordPress Theme Menu

The title speaks for itself but while some may feel that it is a little too obvious, the truth is that it is not. Actually, WordPress category issues are not limited to new WordPress users only. An experienced blogger recently found himself in a similar situation and wrongly blamed his newly installed WordPress theme for his inability to remove the Uncategorized category from its main menu. Such incidence may be due to the fact that blogging platforms regularly perform upgrades on their systems (for example, WordPress will be releasing WP Version 3.0 soon), thus it is very easy for users to become unaware of important changes or new additions.

The same scenario can be applied to the problem of removing the Uncategorized default category from  a WordPress theme. While some WP themes today, provide an in-built way to carry out this function, it is not uncommon to find many more themes who do not provide such functionality. In the past, one would have to make direct adjustments to the theme code, just as a lot of people still install a Read More plug-in rather than use the default one that comes with the Posts editor. Rather than go the hard way, simply do the following.

1. Under Settings, go to Writing.
2. Change Default Post Category to a new Category of your choice and Save Changes.
3. Now go to Posts and click on Categories.
4. You should observe that the previously undeletable Uncategorized category can now be deleted while the newly set default category will no longer be deleteable
5. Ignore or Delete the Uncategorized category and that’s it – you are done and dusted!

If the above instructions are followed properly, you should find that your new posts will no longer be stored automatically under the Uncategorized category hence Uncategorized will no longer appear on your menu list.

Talking Point

How often do you upgrade your blogging platform, content management system or software programs in general?