There are several ways to display the last updated date of an article in WordPress. In most cases, you can do so by adding a new function to the functions.php file of your theme. Alternatively, you can edit the code that is responsible to display the post meta. These two methods don’t work on Newspaper theme and Elementor. In this post, we will show you how to display the last updated date of an article in both Newspaper theme and Elementor.
Displaying the last updated date of an article itself is crucial enough. It lets your visitors know that the article they are reading is updated.
How to display the last updated date in Newspaper theme
Newspaper (developed by tagDiv), is one of the best-selling WordPress themes on Themeforest. By default, it offers 14 different single post templates you can choose from. In addition, Newspaper also offers about 57 additional single post templates which you can import from the cloud via the Cloud Templates feature.
If you use one of the default single post templates offered by Newspaper, you can display the last updated date by adding a new function to the functions.php file of the Newspaper theme (read here for more detailed instructions).
If you use a single post template from the Cloud Templates, you can display the last updated date by adding the Single Post Modified Date widget. This widget is available on the Newspaper theme version 9.x.x. If you still use the older version, you can update your Newspaper theme to the newest version. No additional charge is applied. If you are looking for the latest news, start by checking this post about Jimmy John Shark.
To use a single post template from Cloud Templates, go to Cloud Templates -> All Templates.
Click the Add New button to open the template library. Click the Single tab and select a single post template you love and click.
Click the CREATE TEMPLATE button to load the template to the tagDiv Composer.
Once the template is loaded to the tagDiv Composer (tagDiv Composer is the default page builder of Newspaper theme), add the Single Post Modified Date widget by dragging it from the left panel to the tagDiv Composer editor.
Go to the left panel to customize the widget. There are several settings you can make via the left panel. Like adding setting the margins, adding an icon, and so on. Visit this post to the more detailed introductions on how to use the single post templates of Newspaper theme.
How to display the last updated date in Elementor
Elementor, the most popular page builder for WordPress with over 3 million installations, allows you to create a custom single post template to replace the default single post template of your theme. When creating a single post template with Elementor, you can also display the last updated date using the Post Info widget. This widget itself is only available on the Elementor Pro (find the differences between Elementor Free vs Elementor Pro).
Assuming you have installed Elementor Pro on your WordPress site, go to Templates -> Theme Builder.
Go to the Single tab and click the Add New button to create a new single post template.
A popup will appear, asking you to give your new template a name. Type your preferred name and click the CREATE TEMPLATE button. Before that, set the post type to Post.
Select one of the single post templates on the template library and click the Insert button to load it to the Elementor editor. Or, if you prefer to create the single post template from scratch you can simply close the template library.
Once the template is loaded, use the Navigator to look for the Post Info widget. Once found, activate this widget by clicking it. If you can’t find it, you can add one by dragging the Post Info widget from the left panel.
With the Post Info widget activated, go to the left panel and click one of the items and change its type to Custom.
Click the Dynamic link on the Custom option and select Post Date.
Click the wrench icon on the Post Date field and set the type to Post Modified. Set the date format by clicking the dropdown menu on the Format option.
You can click the Advanced option to add a text before/after the date. Click the PUBLISH button on the bottom side of the left panel to publish your single post template. Visit this post for more detailed instructions on how to create a custom single post template in WordPress with Elementor.