A handy feature of the WordPress admin is the bulk actions bar.

If you want to perform bulk actions on your pages or posts in wordpress, for example if you wanted to change the status of a bunch of posts to “private” (or “published” for that matter), then select the posts you want to change and click the bulk actions drop-down:

Next, select edit, then click apply. You will now see a variety of options you can change in all the posts or pages you have selected.

So, if you want to change the status of a post, simply click the status drop-down and select the option you want, such as “private”.

Click “update”.

Job done!