Custom Post Type UI – Bulk Edit, Export, Import Content

To bulk edit custom post types created with Custom Post Type UI, install the WP Sheet Editor – Post Types plugin, set up a spreadsheet for that specific post type from the Setup Spreadsheet screen, then edit, search, duplicate, import, or export hundreds of items directly from the grid instead of opening each entry in the default WordPress editor.

Custom Post Type UI (CPT UI) is one of the most widely used WordPress plugins for registering custom post types and taxonomies without writing code. It’s a solid tool for defining a new content type, such as events, listings, recipes, or team members, but it doesn’t add any bulk editing tools of its own. Once you’ve created dozens or hundreds of entries in a custom post type, updating them one by one in the standard WordPress editor becomes slow.

That gap is where a dedicated spreadsheet editor helps. WP Sheet Editor – Post Types lets you view and manage WordPress posts, pages, WooCommerce products, and any custom post type registered by a third-party plugin, all from a spreadsheet interface inside your WordPress dashboard. For custom post types created with CPT UI specifically, this means you can pull every entry into a grid, edit cells the way you would in Excel or Google Sheets, and save changes across many rows in one action instead of opening each post individually.

For this example, we created a custom post type called “Freelancers.” Here’s what it looks like laid out as a spreadsheet, with each row representing one freelancer entry and each column representing a field:

How to view and manage Custom Post Type UI entries in a spreadsheet

After installing WP Sheet Editor – Post Types, you need to set up a spreadsheet for the specific custom post type you want to manage. In this case, that’s the Freelancers post type.

• Go to WP Sheet Editor > Setup Spreadsheet.
• You’ll see a list of every post type registered on your site, including ones created with Custom Post Type UI. Tick the one you want to generate a spreadsheet for.
• Click Save to move to the next step.

Once you’ve selected the post type, the next screen lets you choose which fields appear as columns.

On this screen you’ll see every column that can be displayed in the spreadsheet. Drag columns to the left or right side to enable or disable them, and reorder them vertically to control the order they appear in when you open the spreadsheet. This is useful if a custom post type has a lot of fields but you only need to work with a handful of them regularly.

Once you’re done arranging columns, click Save to open the spreadsheet itself.

This is what the finished spreadsheet for a custom post type looks like. Every row is a post, and every column is a field. You can click into any cell and start typing, pasting, or selecting values, the same way you’d work in Excel or Google Sheets, and the changes save back to your WordPress database.

A few features are worth knowing about before you start editing at scale:

• Global sort – Sort custom post type entries by ID, title, date, or date modified.
• Column manager – Edit, reorder, enable, or disable columns at any time without rebuilding the spreadsheet from scratch.
• Search – Filter entries by keyword, taxonomy, date, status, or any other field, then apply bulk changes to just the filtered results.
• Bulk edit – Apply the same change to thousands of items at once. You can target all items, manually selected items, or search results, which is different from the default WordPress bulk actions panel that only touches a handful of built-in fields.
• Duplicate – Create hundreds of copies of an entry. This is handy when a custom post type has a repeatable template structure, such as event listings with similar fields.
• Locate cell / Locate column – Type a value or column name to jump straight to it, which speeds up navigation on spreadsheets with hundreds of rows or columns.

Editing custom taxonomies alongside custom fields

Many custom post types built with CPT UI also use custom taxonomies to categorize entries, for example “Skill” or “Location” for a Freelancers post type, or “Event Type” for an events post type. The native WordPress bulk edit panel only lets you add categories or tags to selected posts, and it doesn’t recognize custom taxonomies at all. In the spreadsheet, custom taxonomies appear as regular columns, so you can assign, change, or clear taxonomy terms across many rows the same way you’d edit any other field.

Important: editing Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) in the spreadsheet

If you’ve added custom fields to your post types using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, WP Sheet Editor can display and edit them too, since ACF stores its data as standard post meta. Text fields, number fields, true/false toggles, date pickers, and select fields all show up as editable columns. Repeater and flexible content fields are more complex structures and may need a different handling approach depending on how they’re configured.

Here’s a look at several different ACF field types displayed as spreadsheet columns:

For a more detailed walkthrough, see this guide on how to edit different types of ACF fields using WP Sheet Editor. It focuses on standard WordPress posts, but the same steps apply to any spreadsheet generated for a custom post type created with Custom Post Type UI.

How to export Custom Post Type UI entries to a CSV

WP Sheet Editor lets you download all the information from your custom post types to a CSV file, which you can then open in Microsoft Excel (365 or older versions), Google Sheets, or another spreadsheet program. This is useful for editing content offline, working without access to your website, or keeping an external backup of your custom post type data before making large-scale changes.

To start, click the Export tool.

Configure the export using these options:

• What columns do you want to export: Select which columns to include in the file.
• Which rows do you want to export: Export all rows, only search results, or only manually selected rows.
• What app will you use to edit this file: Choose Microsoft Excel 365, older versions of Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or another CSV editor, so the file is formatted correctly for that program.
• Once configured, click Start new export to download the CSV.

The export settings screen looks like this once your options are selected:

And here’s a preview of the resulting custom post type CSV file, ready to open in a spreadsheet program:

How to import custom post types (CPT UI)

Besides bulk editing and exporting, you can import custom post type data from a CSV file into your WordPress site, which is useful for migrating content, restoring from a backup, or making large edits offline before pushing them live.

Click Import to open the tool.

Choose the file you want to import from your computer:

• Source: CSV file from my computer.
• Click Choose file and select the CSV from your computer.
• Click Next to continue.

Once the file is selected, you’ll move to the column mapping step shown below.

Next, click Import all the columns, or manually choose Select individual columns to import if you only want to update specific fields.

You can create all rows as new entries, create new entries while also updating existing ones, only update existing entries, or only create new ones. You can also match rows in the CSV to existing entries on your site, for example by matching on ID, so updates land on the correct posts instead of creating duplicates. Once your matching settings are correct, click Next.

Finally, you’ll see a preview of the data as it will appear once imported. If everything looks correct, click The preview is fine, start import.

With WP Sheet Editor, managing Custom Post Type UI content stops being a matter of opening one entry at a time. You can view, filter, and update thousands of items directly in a spreadsheet, which cuts down the hours normally spent on repetitive edits.

Frequently asked questions

Does Custom Post Type UI have its own bulk editing feature?
No. Custom Post Type UI is built for registering post types and taxonomies, not for editing content in bulk. Any custom post type it creates still uses the standard WordPress admin screens, which only offer basic bulk actions like changing status or author. Editing custom fields or taxonomy terms across many entries requires a separate spreadsheet-based tool.

Can I bulk edit custom fields added with Advanced Custom Fields on a CPT UI post type?
Yes. Since ACF stores its values as standard post meta, a spreadsheet editor that reads post meta can display and edit those fields as regular columns. Simple field types like text, number, date, select, and true/false work well this way. Repeater and flexible content fields are more complex and may require additional configuration.

Will bulk editing through a spreadsheet break my custom post type’s front-end display?
No, as long as the values you enter match the format the field expects (for example, a date field still receives a valid date). The spreadsheet edits the same underlying post and meta data that the WordPress editor would, so anything displaying that data on the front end reads the updated values normally.

Can I undo a bulk edit if I make a mistake across many entries?
Exporting a CSV backup of your custom post type before making large bulk changes is the safest way to have a rollback point. If something goes wrong, you can re-import the original CSV to restore the previous values.

Do I need coding knowledge to bulk edit a custom post type created with CPT UI?
No. Setting up the spreadsheet, editing cells, and running an import or export are all done through the WordPress admin interface without touching code. Custom Post Type UI itself may involve some technical setup when registering fields, but editing existing entries in bulk does not.