The WordPress Dashboard Overview

Much has evolved over the years for WordPress and web technologies in general. While there has been change the basics of the WordPress website admin dashboard has remained fairly constant. What you see in your dashboard, may not be exactly what you see in the following videos and screenshots, but the basic functionality and navigation remain the same. (updated 1/2023)

This ‘Dashboard’ tutorial covers:

• Managing ‘Dashboard’ widgets
• ‘Screen Options’ and ‘Help’
• ‘Dashboard’ sidebar menu overview
• The ‘Toolbar’

The ‘Dashboard’ is the site command center. From settings to content creation and updates to statistics–the ‘Dashboard’ provides a central location for managing and access everything.

In the middle section of the screen you will find a list of widgets for quick access to posting content, statistics, news and other useful information. You can toggle widgets by clicking the arrow in the widget title bar. Some dashboard widgets have configuration settings that you can access by hovering over the title bar and clicking ‘Configure’.

The ‘Screen Options’ tab at the top of the screen opens a drop-down menu for selecting which widgets you want to display on your dashboard. The ‘Help’ tab provides tips for managing the dashboard as well as links to documentation and support.

The sidebar gives you quick access to content creation and site management options. The main menu items include ‘Dashboard’, ‘Posts’, ‘Media’, ‘Pages’, ‘Comments’, ‘Appearance’, ‘Plugins’, ‘Users’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Settings’. Clicking on or hovering over a menu item reveals sub-menus for quickly accessing the sub-sections of your site.

The ‘Toolbar’ runs along the top of your screen and is available on both the front-end and back-end of your site when you are logged in.

Help optimize the workflow of your users, clients and internal staff–familiarize them with the WordPress ‘Dashboard’ using this quality video tutorial.