The dashboard can be a little overwhelming when first experienced. There is a lot of options and information available to the user. Each dashboard will be different depending on the user role. The admin will have the most options available while a subscriber to the blog will have the least. Getting around the dashboard is mainly done by using the left sidebar (Figure 1). Everything you need in order to access and edit your blog is broken down into logical sections.
Posts-In this section you can edit, delete and approve posts. You can also view the author of a particular post, what categories it is under and the date it was published.
Media-All video, images, sounds and other files will be listed under this section. It gives you all the information on each file and also the ability to delete, add or edit a particular media file.
Links-List of custom link that would go on your blog sidebar.
Pages-These are pages created to display non-blog content such as an about page or contact us page. You can build an entire website using these pages. When a new page is added it will be displayed in the navigation bar (if applicable). Under this section you can delete pages, add pages, edit pages and publish.
Comments-This section is familiar to the pages section. In here you can edit and monitor comments made on blog posts.
Appearance- This gives you access to themes and themes editor to create the “look & feel” for you blog.
Plug-ins-The strength in WordPress lies in all the great plug-ins available. These plug-ins extend the capabilities of WordPress and bring it beyond a blogging platform. They’re plug-ins for adding video galleries, images galleries, twitter functions, contact us forms and more.
Users-If your blog has additional users you can edit their roles and personal information here. You can add users and delete users as well. See the section on “user access” for more info.
Tools-gives the ability for your blog to use Google Gears to make it work in “Turbo Mode”.
Settings-General settings are changed under this section. For example you can change your blog name, defaults user roles, security setting etc.
The dashboard also presents a quick look at what is happening on the blog now. It gives you a section to make a quick blog post. There is also comments section, popular plug-ins and WordPress related news.
Using the Dashboard
Figure 1
The dashboard can be a little overwhelming when first experienced. There is a lot of options and information available to the user. Each dashboard will be different depending on the user role. The admin will have the most options available while a subscriber to the blog will have the least. Getting around the dashboard is mainly done by using the left sidebar (Figure 1). Everything you need in order to access and edit your blog is broken down into logical sections.
Posts-In this section you can edit, delete and approve posts. You can also view the author of a particular post, what categories it is under and the date it was published.
Media-All video, images, sounds and other files will be listed under this section. It gives you all the information on each file and also the ability to delete, add or edit a particular media file.
Links-List of custom link that would go on your blog sidebar.
Pages-These are pages created to display non-blog content such as an about page or contact us page. You can build an entire website using these pages. When a new page is added it will be displayed in the navigation bar (if applicable). Under this section you can delete pages, add pages, edit pages and publish.
Comments-This section is familiar to the pages section. In here you can edit and monitor comments made on blog posts.
Appearance- This gives you access to themes and themes editor to create the “look & feel” for you blog.
Plug-ins-The strength in WordPress lies in all the great plug-ins available. These plug-ins extend the capabilities of WordPress and bring it beyond a blogging platform. They’re plug-ins for adding video galleries, images galleries, twitter functions, contact us forms and more.
Users-If your blog has additional users you can edit their roles and personal information here. You can add users and delete users as well. See the section on “user access” for more info.
Tools-gives the ability for your blog to use Google Gears to make it work in “Turbo Mode”.
Settings-General settings are changed under this section. For example you can change your blog name, defaults user roles, security setting etc.
The dashboard also presents a quick look at what is happening on the blog now. It gives you a section to make a quick blog post. There is also comments section, popular plug-ins and WordPress related news.