03 – WordPress Dashboard Overview

WordPress is a content management system that allows users to easily create and manage websites. One of the main components of WordPress is the dashboard, which is the main control panel for managing your website. The dashboard contains a variety of features and options that allow you to manage your website’s content, design, and functionality.

In this article, we’ll explore the various features of the WordPress dashboard and explain how they work.
After logging into your WordPress dashboard you will be taken to the dashboard, below is a list of all the sectiions of the dashboard and their subsections with a short description of what they all do.

Dashboard

• Home
  The home page of the WordPress dashboard provides an overview of your website’s activity, including recent posts, comments, and updates.
•  Updates:
  The updates section of the dashboard allows you to view and install available updates for WordPress itself, themes, and plugins.

 Posts:

The posts section of the dashboard allows you to manage your website’s blog posts.

•   All Posts:
  The all posts page shows a list of all your website’s blog posts.
•   Add New:
  The add new page allows you to create a new blog post.
•   Categories:
  Categories allow you to organize your blog posts into different topics or themes.
•   Tags:
  Tags are another way to organize your blog posts, usually by specific keywords or phrases.

  Media:

The media section of the dashboard allows you to manage your website’s media files, such as images and videos.

•   Library:
  The library page shows a list of all your website’s media files.
•   Add New:
  The add new page allows you to upload new media files to your website.

  Pages:

The pages section of the dashboard allows you to manage your website’s static pages.

•   All Pages:
  The all pages page shows a list of all your website’s pages.
•   Add New:
  The add new page allows you to create a new page.

  Comments:

This section allows users to manage and moderate comments on their website. From here, users can approve, delete, or mark comments as spam. Users can also reply to comments and edit them if necessary.

Appearance

This section is all about customizing the look and feel of a website. Here are some of the key features under Appearance:

•   Themes:
  Users: can choose from a variety of pre-designed themes or upload their own custom theme.
•   Customize:
  This feature allows users to tweak the design of their website in real-time.
•   Widgets:
  Users can add, remove, and rearrange widgets on their website’s sidebar or footer.
•   Menus:
  Users can create and manage custom menus for their website.
•   Background:
  Users can upload custom background images for their website.
•   Theme Editor:
  Advanced users can modify their theme’s code directly.

Plugins:

Plugins are add-ons that extend the functionality of WordPress. Here are the key features under Plugins:

•   Installed Plugins:
  Users can manage and activate/deactivate the plugins they’ve already installed.
•   Add New:
  Users can browse and install new plugins from the WordPress repository.
•   Plugin Editor:
  Advanced users can modify their plugin’s code directly.

Users:

The Users section of the WordPress dashboard is where you can manage your website’s user accounts. Here are the different options available under the Users section:

•   All Users:
  This section displays a list of all the users registered on your website, including their username, email address, role, and the date they registered.
•   Add New:
  This option allows you to create a new user account on your website.
•   Profile:
  Here, you can edit your own profile and change your username, password, and other personal information.

  Tools:

This section contains a set of tools that can help you manage your website more efficiently.

• Available Tools:
  The Available Tools section of the WordPress dashboard contains several useful tools that can help you manage your website. Here are some of the options available under this section:
•   Import:
  This tool allows you to import content from another website or content management system.
•   Export:
  This tool allows you to export your website’s content to another website or content management system.
•   Site Health:
  This tool checks your website’s health and provides recommendations to improve performance and security.
•   Export Personal Data:
  This tool allows you to export the personal data of a specific user.
•   Erase Personal Data:
  This tool allows you to erase the personal data of a specific user.

Settings:

The Settings section of the WordPress dashboard contains options to configure your website’s settings. Here are some of the options available under this section:

General:

• Site Title:
  The name of your website.
• Tagline:
  A short description of your website.
• WordPress Address (URL):
  The address where WordPress is installed.
• Site Address (URL):
  The address of your website.
• Timezone:
  Set the timezone of your website.

Writing:

• Default Post Category:
  The default category for new posts.
• Default Post Format:
  The default format for new posts.
• Post via email:
  Allows you to post to your website via email.
•  Update Services:
  Services that are notified when you publish new content.

Reading:

• Your homepage displays:
  Choose whether your homepage displays your latest posts or a static page.
• Blog pages show at most:
  Set the number of posts displayed on your blog pages.
• Syndication feeds show the most recent:
  Set the number of posts displayed in your RSS feed.
• Search Engine Visibility:
  Discourage search engines from indexing your site.

Media:

This section allows you to set the default dimensions for images and other media uploaded to your WordPress site.
You can also specify the maximum dimensions and file size for media uploads, choose to organize your media into folders based on date and month and specify whether or not to crop images to fit the dimensions you set.

Permalinks:

This section allows you to customize the URLs for your WordPress posts and pages. You can choose from a number of different permalink structures, including ones that include the post title, category, or date.
You can also create your own custom permalink structure using tags like %postname%, %category%, and %year%.

Privacy:

•  This section allows you to create a privacy policy page for your WordPress site.
•  You can customize the text of the privacy policy and specify which plugins and third-party services collect user data on your site.
•  You can also create a cookie policy page and specify whether or not your site uses cookies.
• Discussion:
•  This section allows you to control the commenting settings for your WordPress site.
•  You can choose whether or not to allow comments

That concludes this tutorial on the functions of the WordPress dashboard.

wordpress dashboard