The WordPress Dashboard

The WordPress dashboard is the place to manage everything pertaining to your website. It can only be accessed after logging in.

Homepage

The homepage is the first page that appears when you install WordPress and login to WordPress.

Updates

The Updates page is the place to go for updating WordPress core, theme, and any plugins you have.

Posts

The Posts page is the place to go for managing your posts. When you navigate to the Posts tab, you will see all of the posts you’ve created including drafts. To edit a post, click the title of the post you wish to edit.

Media

The Media tab on the left sidebar is home to the Media Library. The Media Library is the place where all your media on your website can be managed.

Pages

Much like the Posts page, the Pages page allows you to manage the pages of your website. Just like the Posts page, you can click the title of a page to edit it.

Comments

You can manage the comments on your website on the Comments page.

Appearance

If you click on the Appearance tab, you will be directed to the Themes page.

Themes

The themes page allows you to manage your themes. You can click the blue Customize button on your active theme to manage customization options through the Customizer. You can also delete the themes you aren’t currently using by clicking on them, and clcking the Delete button in the bottom-right corner of the overlay. You can also install a new theme by clicking the Add New Theme button. Doing so will open a page where you can search for new themes. At the top of the page, you can also sort by popular themes, the latest themes, as well as favorites you’ve marked. You can even filter themes by specific features which you can specify under the Feature Filter button.

Customize

The Customize subtab opens the WordPress Customizer.

Widgets

The Widgets page is the spot to manage the various widgets that are on your website.

The Menus page allows you to create menus to be displayed by your theme. This page is most commonly used for configuring the primary (usually shown in the site header), secondary, and footer menus.

Theme Editor

While not the recommended way to edit your theme, it can work in an absolute pinch. You might consider using the Theme Editor if there is a conflict your theme is causing and you want to make a bandage fix.

Plugins

The plugins page displays a list of the plugins you have installed, whether active or non-active. You can activate and deactivate plugins by clicking the respective link under the title of a given plugin. Many plugins also provide access to their settings with a settings link next to the Activate/Deactivate link. Of course, you can view various details including the description, author, and version of each plugin on the right side of the listing.

Users

The Users page is the place to add, edit, and remove users from your website. I will cover the Users page in detail in a later WordPress from Scratch guide.

Tools

WordPress provides one tool by default, Categories and Tags Converter. You can access this tool by clicking the Categories and Tags Converter link in the box displayed. You will then be directed to the Import screen.

Settings

The Settings page contains all of the general settings related to your website. Here are the various options you can edit on this screen:

  • Site Title
    • The title of your website. Shown in search results and on the tab label. This may also be shown in the header/footer of the theme you use.
  • Tagline
    • Tagline of your website. This is shown in search results next to your title. This can be left empty if you don’t care to display a tagline.
  • WordPress Address (URL)
  • Site Address (URL)
  • Administration Email Address
    • The email address where WordPress notifications are sent to including site issues, new user registrations, user changing their password, etc.
  • Membership
    • Whether or not visitors can register.
  • New User Default Role
    • The role new users are assigned as by default.
  • Site Language
    • The language of your website.
  • Timezone
    • The timezone that times on your website should be shown in.
  • Date Format
    • The date format that dates are displayed in.
  • Time Format
    • The time format that times are displayed in.
  • Week Starts On
    • The day WordPress considers as the start of the week.

How to Log out of Your Website

To log out, hover over the _Howdy, button in the top-right corner on the top bar. In the dropdown, click the Log Out button.

How to Log in to Your Website

To log in, navigate to your domain name/wp-login.php. Then, fill in your username and password, then click the blue Log In button.

In Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has been helpful in providing an overview of the WordPress dashboard.