WordPress Users Guide
Section 1: Getting Started
1a: Introduction to and Navigating the Dashboard
The dashboard:
Upon logging into the dashboard of your WordPress installation you will see a myriad of options present themselves to you on screen. Running down the left side of the screen are a series of drop-down menus including the dashboard, posts, media, links, pages, comments, appearance, plugins, users, tools, and settings. Clicking on any of these options will load their respective pages. While hovering over one of the options will reveal the drop-down arrow. When clicked this drop-down arrow will expand to show the sub-options of the menu. On the right side of the dashboard, or the main content area, you’ll see a series of boxes containing content on various topics. In the upper left should be a box labeled ‘Right Now’. This box contains various statistics about your WordPress website including your post count, your page count, and other numbers some of which pertain to the discussion portion of your blog (comments). You may also notice an ‘QuickPress’ box which you can use to make a very quick post.
Dashboard drop-down menu:
On the left side underneath the dashboard drop-down menu you have two options. The first being dashboard which, when clicked, will return you to the main dashboard page. The second option is ‘updates’. When clicked the ‘updates’ page loads information about your WordPress blog and plugins that are in need of updating. You can follow the simple instructions on the screen to update any portion of your blog.
Posts drop-down menu:
The posts drop-down menu has four menu options: posts, add new, categories, and post tags. The ‘posts’ page lists all of the information regarding every post that has been made to your blog. From here you can add, edit, and delete posts. The ‘add new’ page loads a fresh, blank post for you to populate. This is the primary manner in which you will add new posts to you blog. Posts and the ‘add new’ page will be discussed in further detail in a later section. The ‘categories’ page is where you can manage every aspect of your blog’s categories. When a post is made to the blog it can be filed into one or more categories. We visited via the front end of your website these categories will display every post they contain. The ‘post tags’ page is where you can manage all of your post tags. Post tags will be discussed later in the posts section. Posts will be discussed in further detail later in this users guide
Media drop-down menu:
The media drop-down menu contains two options: library and add new. The ‘library’ page under the media drop-down menu displays all of the media that has been uploaded to your WordPress website. From here you can add, delete, and edit all media that has been uploaded. The ‘add new’ page under the media drop-down menu will allow you to upload new media to your WordPress website. Media includes images or pictures, movies, sound files, and other document.
Links drop-down menu:
The links drop-down menu has three options: links, add new, and link categories. The ‘links’ page lists all of the links that have been added to your links section. Why this section exists and how it is used by your WordPress website will be explained later section. The ‘add new’ page allows you to add new links to your WordPress website links section. The ‘link categories’ page allows you to define categories for which you can file your links into. The usefulness of this drop-down menu will be explained later.
Pages drop-down menu:
The pages drop-down menu contains two options: pages, and add new. The ‘pages’ page allows you to view, delete, and edit all of the pages that have been published to your website. The ‘add new’ page presents you with a fresh, blank page for you to populate with new data in order to create a new page. Pages will be discussed in further detail later in this users guide.
Comments page:
The comments menu item is the only menu item that does not contain a drop-down menu. The ‘comments’ page allows you to review, approve, delete, and manage all of the comments that have been made to your WordPress website.
Appearance drop-down menu:
The appearance drop-down menu contains four items: themes, widgets, menus, and editor. The ‘themes’ page allows you to manage and install new WordPress themes. The ‘widgets’ page allows you to manage your widgets as well as how and where they appear within your theme’s widget enabled areas and sidebars. Widgets will be discussed in further detail later in this users guide. The ‘menus’ page allows you to manage, add, and remove links from navigation menus around your WordPress website. Depending on which theme you are using you may or may not be able to utilize the menus page. This will be discussed in further detail later in the users guide. The ‘editor’ page allows you to edit the code for various pages of your theme. This requires advanced knowledge of HTML, CSS, and in some cases, PHP. It is possible from within the editor to render your WordPress website unusable.
Plugins drop-down menu:
The plugins menu contains three options: plugins, add new, and editor. The ‘plugins’ page allows you to manage, add, and delete WordPress plugins. The ‘add new’ page allows you to search for new plugins to add to your WordPress website. The ‘editor’ page allows you to edit the various files pertaining to each plugin that you have installed on your WordPress website. It is possible from the editor page to mess up your plugins code and render them useless.
Users drop-down menu:
The users drop-down menu contains three options: users, add new, and your profile. The ‘users’ page lists all of the users that have access to your WordPress website. From here you can manage, add, and remove users from your WordPress website. Each user can be set with a specific access level, or role. Each different access level allows that user different capabilities within your blog. Users in the different user roles will be discussed later in this users guide. The add new page allows you to add new users to your WordPress website. The ‘your profile’ page provides you with options to change the display and various other aspects of the account you are logged into the WordPress website with.
Tools drop-down menu:
The tools drop-down menu has three options: tools, import, and export. The ‘tools’ page provides you access to a few tools which you may want to make use of. The ‘import’ page allows you to import posts comments from another blogging system. The different blogging systems that you can import from include: blogger, blogroll, LiveJournal, movable type and TypePad, RSS, and WordPress. It also provides you access to the categories and tags converter. The ‘export’ page allows you to export various aspects of your WordPress website. You can export all of the content on your website, just the posts, just the pages, or various other elements depending on the theme you have installed.
Settings drop-down menu:
The settings drop-down menu by default contains seven menu items: general, writing, reading, discussion, media, privacy, and permalinks. The ‘general’ page provides you with various options in regard to your WordPress website including changing your site title, your blog URL, the time formatting, and your e-mail address. The ‘writing’ page provides you with various options that affect the ways in which you make posts to your WordPress website. The ‘reading’ page gives you various options to edit how your WordPress website displays content. The ‘discussion’ page gives you options to control various aspects of a commenting system of your WordPress website. The ‘media’ page provides you with various options to influence how media is uploaded, stored, and how it displays on your website. The ‘privacy’ page gives you the option of whether or not you would like your website to show up and be listed within search engines. The ‘permalinks’ page allows you to set permalinks for your website. Permalinks allow you to customize the display of the link structure of your website. Many of these menu options, including permalinks, will be discussed later in this users guide.
Notes:
Some WordPress themes and WordPress plugins will add additional drop-down menu items or drop-down menus themselves to your dashboard. These menus should provide you with options to configure with regard to your theme or plugin.