[wpmudev-video video=”dashboard”]
The first thing you usually see when logging into WordPress is the Dashboard – a great way to get updates on your website statistics and more.
In the main area of your dashboard you will find widgets, which hold some news and basic information about your site.
-Drag and drop to position them however you would like
-Roll them closed by clicking the down-arrow icon in the far right corner by the widget title
-Some widgets have configuration options which can be accessed by hovering over the title bar and clicking on the configure link that appears.
In the upper-right hand corner of the screen you will see a couple of pull-down tabs labeled Screen Options and Help.
-Clicking on the Screen Options tab brings up customization options for your dashboard. It is here you can turn off and on the widgets you may or may not want shown at any given time.
-The Help tab provides information about those customizations, as well as links to documentation and support.
In the side bar you will find links that provide easy access to the different areas of your site.
-When the menu item is selected, a list of sub-menu items will appear below it.
-Hovering your cursor over any other items will also display their respective sub-menu.
You can click any of the options on the sub-menus to easily access any of the sub-sections of your site.
Now to familiarize yourself with the Main Menu items:
-The Dashboard: Receive statistics and updates regarding your site
–Posts: Create and manage the posts on your blog, as well as the tags and categories managing them
–Media: Managing the media content library for things like PDF’s, videos, images, and audio files
–Pages: Creating and managing pages on your site
–Comments: Used to manage your visitor’s feedback
–Appearance: Choose your theme, set up widgets, create custom navigation menus, etc.
–Plugins: Extend the capabilities of your website, and lets you manage, activate, and deactivate them
–Users: Allows you to view and manage all the site’s users, as well as allow you to edit your own profile
–Tools: Provides tools to use for your site as well as options for importing/exporting content
–Settings: Bulk of your sites options will be maintained here. The site’s name, privacy, and permalinks can all be configured here.
Lastly, at the very top, you will find the Admin Bar. Check out our article on that for further information regarding it.