When you log in to WordPress you are presented with the dashboard. Like the dashboard of your car, it is used to control WordPress, but it also the place where WordPress displays information that may be of use to you.
The dashboard consists of five main areas:
- Website name – the name of club usually.
- Toolbar – when options will appear, enabling to perform specific tasks.
- Username – the name of the person currently logged in to WordPress.
- Menu – these are where you control, style and create/modify your content.
In the middle is your work area. The content of this area changes, depending on what you are doing.
Dashboard menu options
From top to bottom we have:
- Home – that’s what will be displayed;ayed when log in to WordPress.
- Updates – if there any parts of WordPress that need to be manually updated, you will see notifications here.
- Posts – essentially news items, they are created and edited here.
- Media – images and videos you upload are stored here.
- Pages – the informational pages of your website are created and edited here.
- Comments – visitors can, if you allow them to, comment on your posts and pages, you can see and respond to comments here.
- Appearance – this is where you define how your website looks.
- Plugins – small additional apps that give your web site greater functionality are added here.
- Users – if you give your club’s members the ability to add content, or maintain the website, this where you create their accounts, assign them passwords and define what they can do.
- Tools – here you will find utilities to help you maintain your website.
- Settings – this is where you configure your website and define how it will work.
- Stackcache – unique to WordPress websites that are hosted with our hosting company, so we won’t discuss this in this short series.
We will look at the most important of these dashboard menus in this short series, but not the more advanced ones; we may cover them at a later date.