The WordPress dashboard or the WordPress Admin Dashboard is what you find as the first option when you log in to your WordPress account.
Much easy as it may appear for the people who have been using the WordPress installation for their blogging, it can get a little confusing for the beginners to a greater extent. We help you out in getting to know the WordPress dashboard in a better manner. So, without much ado, we will dive into the task of exploring the WordPress dashboard or the WordPress admin dashboard.
First Things First – Logging In to Your Dashboard
Well, the typical address you log in to your WordPress account looks something like https://example.com/wp-admin. This will take you to the page where you have to sign in with your user credentials.
Once you log in to your site, you will straightaway be taken to the following page which actually is your WordPress dashboard.
You can click on the Screen Options at the top right corner and change the items that would appear on your dashboard. You can check or uncheck the options for At a glance, Activity, Site statistics, Yoast reviews, Quick Drafts and WordPress events. Please note you may find several other options depending upon the plugins you have included.
Posts
Next in line would be the Posts section. You can click on it to find all the posts and choose to add a new post. You can even choose the categories that you have included on your site.
On choosing the option for adding a new post, you will get access to the text editor.
You have the choice of creating a new post by using the visual editor or text editor. In fact, it is a good idea to use the text editor as you would be able to use HTML tags and improve the visibility and look of your post. However, you are not yet an expert in HTML as yet; it would be good enough to use the visual editor. In any case, we recommend opting for the text editor.
Media
This is the next section on the WordPress dashboard. This is where your media files you have uploaded on your WordPress site. The images added to your posts including the featured images and the images and videos included in the posts will be located.
Comments
Next one is the Comments section for the posts. This will show the list of comments that users and visitors to your site would be displayed. You can approve or delete the comments. Unless you approve the comments, they will not be visible on the site if you are using comment moderation.
Other sections include Appearance, Plugin, Users, Tools, and Settings. The Appearance section lists the themes and all the tools you use for making your site look different from the others out there. This includes the themes, menus, widgets and other details. There is an option to customize the look of your website as well. However, the extent of customization would be dependent upon the themes you have installed.
A Look at the Other side of the Dashboard
Well, that was all about the left sidebar of your WordPress Dashboard and the contents therein. Now, let us check out the central portion of the dashboard and what kind of information does it provide you.
At A Glance
One of the significant widgets on your WordPress dashboard, this should offer you a complete overview of your website and the content therein. It shows the number of posts you have published so far on your site. You should also get the total number of comments you have received so far on your site. Please note that the number of comments includes the spam comments also.
The At a Glance widget also shows you the current theme that your WordPress site is using. You may also find a few additional information depending upon the type and number of plugins you have used on your website.
Quick Draft
This can be used as a notepad or more so, a scribbling pad for your website or blog. This is used for jotting down the short details on a new idea that you may have come across. It may be a handy option for noting down a future post idea you may come across. Now that you would be using your WordPress dashboard to post the content on your website, it should be the right place for jotting down those ideas.
You can even use this place for jotting down renders for any maintenance activity you have planned for your blog. It is indeed a well thought off option so that you can write down a title and a few notes on the topic. You can expand the idea later on.
Activity
This is the next widget that displays a few of the recently published posts. The post titles are displayed along with the date of publication. The widget also shows the information on the latest comments that have been received.
As you can see from the above illustration, you can directly send the comment to spam or approve it.
WordPress Events
This can be an excellent piece of information available on your WordPress dashboard. The WordPress Events is a widget would help you out with the information on the latest improvements in the arena of WordPress. It will guide you on the latest updates as well.
The widget will offer you information on the latest blog posts from the official WordPress websites and blogs like WP Tavern and the WordPress.org blog. You will also find the information on any new updates available for WordPress. WordPress ideally offers you suggestions whenever it has a new update available.
Custom Widgets
While the above widgets would be the default options available for the WordPress installation. You can find more widgets being added to your WordPress dashboard depending upon the plugins you have added to your installation.
If you have plugins like Jetpack installed, it will add a new widget indicating the traffic statistics of your website. In addition to the widgets added by the plugins, you can also install specific widgets based on the requirements you may have. One prime example is the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. That way, you can customize the look of your dashboard so that it can be turned into an information powerhouse for you.
You would also be able to add custom widgets by including new functions to your plugins or your function.php file. However, from a beginner’s point of view, this can be a difficult task.
And yes, you can decide to hide or display any of the widgets depending on your preferences. Just use the Screen Options on the top right corner and choose the widgets you would want to display. Rest can be disabled as per your choice.
The Concluding Thoughts
While for some of you, the WordPress dashboard may be what you would be using with much ease and connect to your content easily enough, for others it may appear a complicated option with a lot of unwanted widgets. However, the information contained herein should help you get used to the dashboard and understand the concept involved in the creation and functionality of the dashboard.
Maybe it is a little difficult to understand at first, but once you learn to take it in control, it can transform itself into the best tool ever for managing your WordPress site. In fact, WordPress has packed in a lot of features into the dashboard that you would find it to be your one-stop solution for a complete control of your blog.
We assume the information above has helped you understand the concept to a greater extent. If still in doubt, share your doubts with us. We would guide you and address your concerns.
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