Meta Box Plugin – Bulk Edit Custom Fields in a Spreadsheet

In this post, we will show you how to bulk edit custom fields added with the Meta Box plugin, using an intuitive spreadsheet inside WordPress.

Meta Box is a plugin for WordPress, which allows you to create custom post types and custom fields. You can create different content types for your WordPress site and add custom fields / meta keys to these custom post types. You can also use the Meta Box plugin to add custom fields to WordPress posts and pages.

Related tutorials:

• How to Export and Import Meta Box Custom Fields with Google Sheets
• How to Export and Import Meta Box Custom Fields with CSV

In this case, we have added custom fields to our WordPress posts using the Meta Box plugin.

To bulk manage custom fields in a spreadsheet, we will use the WP Sheet Editor plugin. It allows you to manage posts, pages, custom post types and custom fields in an intuitive spreadsheet.

In the sections below, we will show you how to edit custom fields using the spreadsheet, how to use custom fields as search filters, and how to bulk edit custom fields.

1- View the Meta Box custom fields in the spreadsheet

In this example, we have added custom fields to our WordPress posts using the Meta Box plugin, so we will use the posts spreadsheet.

We need to go to WP Sheet Editor → Edit posts, and we will see a spreadsheet containing our WordPress posts.

If we right-scroll on the spreadsheet, we will view the new custom fields that we have added using the Meta Box plugin.

For this example, we have added five custom fields:

• Text
• Checkbox
• Email address
• Select
• Number

You can edit all these Meta Box custom fields using the WP Sheet Editor plugin:

• Button
• Checkbox
• Checkbox List
• Email
• Hidden
• Number
• Password
• Radio
• Range
• Select
• Select Advanced
• Text
• Textarea
• URL
• Autocomplete
• Color Picker
• Date
• Date Time
• Fieldset Text
• Google Maps
• Image Select
• oEmbed
• Slider
• Text List
• Time
• WYSIWYG
• Post
• Taxonomy
• Taxonomy Advanced
• User
• File
• File Advanced
• File Input
• Image
• Image Advanced
• Video
• Divider
• Heading

The spreadsheet will display all fields, but if it doesn’t display any field, you can click on Settings → Scan DB to find fields.

2- How to edit Meta Box custom fields in the spreadsheet

Custom fields added with the Meta Box plugin will be displayed in the spreadsheet and will work according to the field type.

As we show you in the screenshot below, checkbox fields and dropdown selector fields work correctly, and this is the case for all custom field types that the Meta Box plugin allows you to add.

Once you finish editing the custom fields in the spreadsheet, you can click on the Save button to apply all the changes.

This is a great way to bulk edit Meta Box custom fields using a spreadsheet. You don’t need to open and edit posts one by one because you will view and manage everything in one place.

3- How to use Meta Box custom fields as search filters

With WP Sheet Editor, you can use any field as a search filter to find specific groups of posts (including the custom fields you have added with the Meta Box plugin).

This is great because the possibilities to do advanced searches based on Meta Box custom fields are unlimited.

You can use specific fields as search filters and do combined searches using several fields to further narrow down the search results.

Start by opening the Search tool.

Example 1 – Search based on taxonomy terms

For example, you can search for posts by taxonomies such as categories, tags, or using custom taxonomies.

In this example, we will search for posts within the “self-help” category.

We just need to enter the taxonomy and click on Run search.

After running the search, we will view all the posts that match the search filters displayed in the spreadsheet.

Also, we will see the active filters above the spreadsheet.

Example 2 – Search using image fields

You can use image fields as search filters. For example, we have created an image field called “Book cover”, and we want to search for all the posts missing book cover.

We need to select these values in the Search tool:

• Tick the Enable advanced filters
• Field: Select the field you want to use as a search filter.
• Operator: =
• Value: We will leave this field empty
• Click on Run search.

As you can see, the search returned all the posts missing image in the Book cover field.

Example 3 – Search using select fields

We have created a select field called “Publisher”, so we can find all the posts that have a specific selector option.

We just need to tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox, select the field we want to use (dropdown selector field in this case), select the = operator, and finally select the option and run the search.

In this case, we have searched for all the posts with a specific dropdown selector option and the results have been displayed in the spreadsheet.

Example 4 – Search using number fields

We can also use number fields as search filters. In this case, we have created a number field called “Pages”, so we can search for posts whose page count is equal to a specific number, equal to or higher/lower than a specific number.

We just need to tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox, select the number field, the operator we want to use, and enter the number.

Finally, we need to run the search.

As you see below, we have searched for all posts containing a number equal to or higher than 200 in the number field we have added with the Meta Box plugin.

4- How to Bulk Edit Meta Box custom fields

WP Sheet Editor allows bulk editing Meta Box custom fields.

You can edit values of your custom fields created with the Meta Box plugin in hundreds of posts.

The bulk updating options are unlimited, because you can mass edit any field in all posts, in all posts of a specific search, or in all posts you manually select.

You need to start by opening the Bulk Edit tool.

To edit any custom field created with Meta Box in bulk, you need:

1. Select the rows (posts) you are going to edit. You can edit all posts, only the posts from a search, or only the posts you select manually.
2. Select the field you are going to edit. You can select any custom field.
3. Select the type of edit you will apply. You can set a new value, replace values, copy from other fields, etc.
4. Select the new values of the bulk change. This will depend on the type of edit you have selected.
5. Execute the bulk change.

Bulk edit Meta Box custom fields now!

If you want to save thousands of clicks, avoid opening hundreds of pages, and avoid spending hundreds of hours editing your content manually, you can use WP Sheet Editor to bulk edit any field created with the Meta Box plugin.