Understanding the WordPress Dashboard

As you begin designing your WordPress site it will be important to understand the basic layout of the Toolbar.  This will be a brief explanation of each tool, so you by the end, you will feel comfortable navigating as you build your website!

Right when you login you'll come to the main window of the Dashboard, which has a few parts beyond the main toolbar to the left:

A. ) - To the top right is where you can edit your account profile information, reset your account login passwords, and change the contact email address you have listed.

B. ) - A quick look at some of the features you can access from the Dashboard.  From changing your Theme quickly, to links on writing a Page/Post, or changing a few settings, you can grab quick links to basic functions here.

C. ) - Shows how many Pages and Posts you have already created, along with your current active Theme.

D. ) - Shows what you were last working on, to help as a quick reminder.

E. ) - Keeps you informed on the latest WordPress news and updates.

To the left will be your main WordPress Dashboard.  We'll go down the list covering each tab and what features can be found there.

On the top left if the 'Home' button, which will simply take you back to the main page of the Dashboard.

One of the most important things you can do is to make sure you keep all of your Plugins, Themes, and WordPress versions updated constantly, as you could be at much greater risk if you don't keep your content current.  The Updates section will let you see what needs to be updated, and help you run the update.

You can learn more about Posts here but along with creating posts, you can view all of your post content, sort them into categories, and even set tags to each post!

The Media section is where you can upload images, audio, or video clips to your WordPress Dashboard and manage them to be added to your pages, posts and other content.

You can learn more about building pages here. But the Pages tool allows you to create, view, and edit your pages.

The Comments tab allows you manage comments others leave on your Pages/Posts.

Appearance is where you go to Install a new Theme, customize your site look, including custom menus, Widgets, and managing your site Editor.

The Users section allows you to create additional login credentials to provide full or limited access to other to help manage and edit your site.

Tools give you a list of additional options that you have to manage your site, including importing and exporting your website to create manual backups, or upload content as needed.

Settings will let you change your main account functionality, along with arranging how people view and edit the site.  You can also look into media options with how they can be displayed, and you can also reset your permalinks, which will help correct any site links that are off.