An access to all your WordPress installation control features is provided by Administration Screen. It comes in sections, the main navigation, the toolbar (and header), the footer and the work area.
You can find the main navigation menu on the left side of the screen. It contains a description of each of the administrative functions which can be performed by a user. Also, see the Collapse menu button at the bottom of that section. It lists a set of icons by major function. If an item clicked, the sub-menu expands fully within each major function, such as Posts and it expands partly (fly-out) when you hover.
The Toolbar, formerly known as the Admin Bar is displayed at the top of each Administration Screen. It provides links to a number of administrative functions. To get more information, just hover over Toolbar items.
The work area is the large area in the middle of the screen. It provides the specific information relating to a particular navigation choice. For example, how to add a new post.
The footer is in light shading at the bottom of each Administration Screen. There WordPress links, thanking you for using it. Also you can see your current version of WordPress.
The Toolbar content is formerly shared between the Admin Bar and the header. It contains quick-links to create new posts, links and pages, review comments, add new users and plugins and alerts to available updates to themes and plugins on your site as well as the links to general information About WordPress. Pay attention: The Toolbar can be disabled on the front-end of the site in your Profile screen since it is no longer possible to hide it when viewing the Administration Screens.
You can find a WordPress logo at the left side of the ToolBar. Hover or place the mouse cursor over the logo to see WordPress.org, About WordPress, Support Forums, Feedback and Documentation. The ‘About WordPress’ page is in the top link on that menu. It contains tabs for What’s New, Freedoms and Credits.
You can find the What’s New tab under the option “About WordPress”. It provides a description of the new WordPress features.
This screen provides information about your rights as a user of WordPress as open source software.
“WordPress is Free and open source software, built by a distributed community of mostly volunteer developers
from around the world. WordPress comes with some awesome, worldview-changing rights courtesy of its license, the GPL.
* You have the freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
* You have access to the source code, the freedom to study how the program works, and the freedom to change it to make it do what you wish.
* You have the freedom to redistribute copies of the original program so you can help your neighbor.
* You have the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes.
WordPress grows when people like you tell their friends about it, and the thousands of businesses and services that are built on and around WordPress share
that fact with their users. It is pleasant when someone spreads the good word, just make sure to check out our trademark guidelines first.
Every plugin and theme in WordPress.org directory is 100% GPL or a similarly free and compatible license, so you can feel safe finding plugins and themes there.
If you get a plugin or theme from another source, make sure to ask them if it’s GPL first. If they don’t respect the WordPress license, it is not recommended to use them.
Don’t you wish all software came with these freedoms? For more information, check out the Free Software Foundation.”
The Credits screen allows to see the details about the various individuals who make changes to the WordPress code base.
Your site name is displayed as a link in the Toolbar to the right of the WordPress logo. Hover over it to visit the main page of your site through the View Site link.
You can find “Howdy User” with an image of your Gravatar on the far right of the Toolbar. Hovered over it to expand it to a Logout link as well as your Profile Screen link. WordPress stores cookies in your web browser when you log in to your blog. This cookies allows the system to remember your profile when you come back; it will not require you to log in again next time.
But cookies cannot tell WordPress who exactly is using the account. In other words, WordPress cannot determine that the visitor is really you. So if cookies from WordPress are enabled in your web browser, any person who is using your PC can enter the Administration Screens of your blog. In case if you are using a public computer or a computer which other people use and you don’t want this to happen, just click the Logout link. WordPress will remove the cookies from your browser.
Of course, you can always log in again later.
Screen Options allow the user to decide what modules or fields are presented in the work area for a given Administration Screen. Each Screen may have a different list of Screen Options. Screen Options are displayed as a hanging tab under the toolbar.
Click on the Screen Options tab to see the available options for a particular Screen, check (or uncheck) the needed options. To close the Screen Options, click on the Screen Options hanging tab.
Help tab displays several Help items that are related to the Screen that is located in the work area. You can find it under the toolbar.
To expand the Help items available for a particular Screen, click on the Help tab. To close the Help display, click the Help hanging tab.
The Dashboard contains information about your recent activity both in the WordPress community and at your site and gives possibility to update WordPress, themes and plugins.
The Dashboard Screen comes with links on the number of pages, posts Tags, Categories, statistics and a number of links to start writing Pages or Posts. A Recent Comments box contains a list of the recent comments and the number of Comments awaiting moderation. There are also RSS feeds from the WordPress Blog, configurable boxes of Incoming Links, Planet WordPress and the Plugins blog.
An easy method to update WordPress, themes and plugins is The Dashboard Updates Screen. However, some hosts require you to manually upgrade by following the Upgrading WordPress instructions since the automatic update process is not allowed.
Finally, you have done it! You now have the best personal publishing tool on the internet. And you are ready to share your ideas and thoughts with the world.
Now what to do? It is simple.
Enter your Administration Screen. Then click on Posts, and then Add New in the navigation menu on the left. You will the Posts Add New Screen. Here you can populate your site with actual content! You should spend a bit of time familiarizing yourself with it since you’ll be spending most of your administration time here.
The principal elements of a blog are the Posts (or content). It is the discussions, writings, compositions, musings, discourses as well as the rantings of contributors and a blog owner. In most cases, there is no blog without Posts since the Posts are the reason why the blog exists.
With the help of the All Posts Screen you can select the Post or several Posts that you wish to view, edit or delete. You can select multiple Posts for editing and for deletion. A useful bulk edit tool gives you the possibility to edit certain fields for multiple Posts. Quick Edit, a handy in-line edit tool allows you to update multiple fields for separate Post. Various filtering and search options allow you to easily find the Posts you want to change or delete.
Every WordPress Post is filed under at least one Category. Categories help viewers in the navigation and use of your site. Also they allow the classification of your Posts into groups and subgroups.
Any single Category may be bound to a Category Parent. It means you can create a hierarchy within the category structure. Let us use cars as an example. A hierarchy will be automobile->Audi->TT. When you create categories, pay attention that regardless of hierarchy, each category name must be original and unique.
When you use the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme, all the Categories will be displayed under that post to which a given post belongs. When a visitor views your blog and clicks on one of Category links, he/she will see an archive page with all the Posts belonging to that Category.
The Posts Categories Screen gives the possibility to organize your categories hierarchically as well as to add delete or edit Categories. You can select multiple Categories for editing or deletion. You can find the Categories you want to edit or delete with the help of a search option. Also you can add Categories in the Posts Add New Screen.
Tags are the keywords which might be assigned to the posts. They have no hierarchy, so there is no relationship from one Tag to another. That is why, not to be confused with Categories. However, just like Categories, Tags help your readers to find information on your blog.
Tags are displayed under each Post when you use the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme. those Tags are assigned. When a person views your blog and clicks on those Tag links, he/she will see an archive page with all the Posts belonging to that Tag.
With the help of The Posts Tags Screen you can add, delete or change Tags. You can select multiple Tags for editing or deletion. You can find the Tags you want to edit or delete with the help of a search option. Also you can add Tags in the Posts Add New Screen.
Media is the files, video, images and recordings you upload and use in your blog. We typically upload and insert Media into the content when writing a Page or Post. The Settings Media Screen Uploading Files section describes the structure and location of the upload directory.
The Media Library Screen comes with possibility to view, edit or delete Media previously uploaded to your blog. You can select or delete multiple Media objects. Various filtering and search options allow you to easily find the the desired Media.
If you want to upload new media to later use with pages and posts, you can do it with the help of the Media Add New Screen. Moreover, if the Flash Uploader does not work, you can use the Browser Uploader.
You can edit the information (title, alt text, caption, etc.) of media files uploaded to your site through the Edit Media page. To reach it, click on the Edit link in the Media Library Screen that appears when you hover over each item since this page does not appear as a link in the main Dashboard navigation.
By default, the blogroll and Links Manager are hidden for new installs and any existing WordPress installs that do not have any links, if you have version 3.5. However, the Links Manager will continue to function as normal if you have higher version of WordPress with any active links. Download and install the Links Manager plugin if you would like to restore the Links panel to your install.
Your site might be a dead-end if it never references all the other blogs, search engines, humor sites, chicken cacciatore recipes, sports teams that you love so much, even if your blog is rich with beautifully designed content! You should allow your reading public to also enjoy those sites since you visit those sites all the time Just use the WordPress Add New Link.
WordPress Links can can be automatically associated with images, and can even be rated on a scale from zero to nine. Also, it can have internal references about your relationship to their destinations and can even be organized by category.
With the help of All Links Screen you can select the Links to change or delete. You can select multiple Links for editing or deletion. Various filtering and search options allow you to easily find the Links you want to change or delete.
The Links Add New Screen handles the creation of new links, as you might guess from its name.
Just like Posts, Links, can be categorized. Such categorized Links help your audience in navigation on your site. But unlike post Categories, Link Categories, have no hierarchy (child/parent relationship). You should recognize that each Category name must be unique when creating categories.
With the help of the Link Categories Screen you can add, delete or edit Link Categories. You can select multiple Link Categories for editing or deletion. Various filtering and search options allow you to easily find the Link Categories you want to change or delete. Also keep in mind that Link Categories can be added when editings or adding Links.
Pages in nature are typically “timeless” content. A Page is often used to present “static” information about the site. It is another tool to add content to a WordPress site. The information contained in “Contact” or “About” Pages is a good example of a Page. It should not be confused with the word “page” referring to any HTML document or web page on the Web nor be confused with the time-oriented objects called Posts.
Pages are displayed individually since they live outside of the normal blog chronology. In addition, they are not displayed with the rest of your Posts.
The All Pages Screen comes with the necessary tools to view, edit or delete Pages. This Screen will help you to select the Page for viewing editing or deletion. You can select multiple Pages for editing or deletion.
Also, see useful bulk edit tool which provides the ability to change certain fields for a whole group of Pages. Quick Edit, a handy in-line edit tool allows you to update multiple fields for separate Page. Various filtering and search options allow you to easily find the Pages you want to change or delete.
With the help of The Add New Page Screen you can create new Pages.
The feature of blogs which allow your visitors to respond to Pages or Posts are called Comments. Visitors may generate discussion, provide links to other resources or simply give a compliment to the author for a well-written content. However, typically they simply share their thoughts regarding the post or page.
Often Comments can be queued for approval before they become visible on the site. Also, they can be regulated and controlled using the filters for content and language. It is a very useful staff in sense of dealing with comment spam bots.
In the Comments Screen you can mark comments as spam as well as edit and delete them. Previously marked as approved comments can be unapproved while other comments are awaiting moderation. Multiple comments can be approved and selected, unapproved, deleted or marked as spam. You can see the number of approved comments and the number of comments awaiting moderation in A section at the top of the Comments Screen. Also, use search box to find specific comments.
You can control how the content of your blog is displayed with the help of the Presentation Administration Screen. WordPress provides the possibility to change the appearance of your site by either installing and activating new Themes or editing existing ones.
A Theme, sometimes called the skin is the look of your site and encompasses graphics, text and color. A long list of Themes to choose are available for WordPress site-owners. They are feeling free in deciding what to present to their sites’ visitors. Moreover, visitors can select their own Theme with the use of the Theme Switcher Reloaded Plugin.
You can set a Theme which will be presented to visitors of your site through the Appearance Themes Screen. Find it under the Manage Theme tab. Also, you can view screenshots you have uploaded to your site that is each Theme screenshots. In addition, you can find and install new Themes under the Install Themes tab.
See the settings that can be customized for a specific theme through the Customize Screen. You can use this option only if the theme author has configured it the way to allow this capability. For example, in the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme you can set a background, image and the colors.
With the help of Widgets you can add different pieces of information to the sidebar content of your Theme. The WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme is a great example of a widget compatible theme. Widgets can be used to add Archives, Blogroll, Categories, Recent Comments and Recent Posts to your sidebar.
The Menus feature gives you the possibility to create a navigation menu of categories, pages, tags, custom links, etc. that is displayed to users. You can use this option only if the theme author had allowed this capability. For example, the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme comes with the possibility to create a menu that will be shown along the header of the Theme. In the left sidebar you can see another secondary menu.
Use the Header feature to set image that will be displayed in a header of the Theme. You can use this option only if the theme author has configured it the way to allow this capability. For example, the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme gives the possibility you to upload, preview, set as default the images you want to be displayed randomly in the header as well as to remove them.
Use Background feature to organize the feel and look of background for your theme. You can use this option only if the theme author had allowed this capability. For example, the WordPress Twenty Fourteen theme allows you to choose the background color or the background image.
The the Theme Editor feature allows you to manage and edit different files that comprise your Themes. First, designate which theme you want to edit and then see the files in that theme using the Appearance Editor Screen. Each file (CSS and Template) in the theme can be edited using powerful text tool.
Plugins give you the possibility to add new useful features to your WordPress blog that are absent from the default installation. See a rich variety of WordPress Available Plugins, and plugin management and installation is a really snap with the following Screens.
You can always view the plugins which you have downloaded and choose which plugins you want to activate on your site through the Plugins Installed Screen.
You can add new plugins with the help of the Plugins Add New Screen.
Using the Plugins Editor Screen, you can modify the source code of all your plugins.
Probably, every blog has at least two users: your user account, as the owner/author of the blog and admin, the account initially set up by WordPress. But what if you want more? Maybe you want to see several authors for your blog. A person must have access to a user account if you want he/she to be able to post to your blog; usually, every writer has its own user account.
You can set up all of the user accounts you need as well as to delete users and change user information via the Users option in the main navigation menu.
The Roles feature is an important administrative feature here since different users have different Capabilities depending on their Role. To be short, a user can be assigned the following Roles: Editor, Author, Administrator, Subscriber or Contributor. Also, from these User Administration Screens, you can specify your as well as the other people personal information such as email, name, etc.
At the All Users Screen you can manage the accounts of all users of your site.
Using the Users Add New Screen, you can easily create new users.
You can change any information related to your user account with the help of the Users Your Profile Screen.
WordPress Tools come with the ability to import content from other sources, upgrade your WordPress software to a new release, speed up WordPress for your local machine or to export your content.
With the Press This function you can post and publish with the help of a special web browser favourite. To allow use of “Press This” from the new post screen, you can create a special shortcut. Then select the favorite from your web browser favorites list and activate the function.
Also, see the links to the Tag and Categories converters.
WordPress provides the import of data from a variety of external sources. Often, you can import users, comments, posts, categories, pages and tags.
The Tools Import Screen shows the details of what types of data and the software packages can be imported by WordPress.
WordPress Export will save the needed files to your computer. It will create an XML file, the format, which is called a WXR or WordPress eXtended RSS file, will contain your comments, posts,categories, tags and custom fields.
The process of exporting your blog is easy with the Tools Export Screen. To backup your WordPress data, the Exporting is a very useful method.
All the Administration Screen staff mentioned above involves ‘Settings’. Are there any differences? Yes, certainly. All the mentioned settings in the other Administration Screens have been of limited scope (for example, only applying to one Category) or have dealt with very specific parts of your site. The Settings Administration Screen provides all needed settings of your blog: settings of how you interact with your site, how the rest of the world interacts with your site and which determine how your site behaves.
You can control these settings using the following Screens.
The Settings General Screen controls some of the most basic configuration settings for your site. It is the default Screen in the Settings Administration Screen. You can configure your site’s location and title, how times and dates are calculated and displayed and who may register an account at your blog.
You can control the interface with which you write new posts using the Settings Writing Screen. These settings control the default Category, the size of the ‘post box’ in the Add New Post Screen, the default Post Format, the default Link Category, the optional Post via e-mail feature and the default image sizes.
There are few settings in the Settings Reading Screen, but they are important. Choose if you want a “static” Page displayed as your blog’s front (main) page or posts as well as the number of posts displayed on that main page. Moreover, to determine how the information from your site is sent to a reader’s browser, configure syndication feed features in the Settings Reading Screen.
You can control settings concerning pingbacks and trackbacks, incoming and outgoing comments using the Settings Discussion Screen. You can decide if your blog should show Avatars and their ratings. Also it allows you to control the circumstances under which your blog sends you e-mail notification you about the events on at your site.
The Settings Media Screen allows you to to specify the maximum dimensions in pixels to use when inserting an image into the post. Also, you can configure how documents, images and other media files will be organized when uploaded.
The Settings Privacy Screen has been removed in version 3.5 or later. The Search Engine Visibility option in now located in the Settings Reading Screen.
A brief quote from the Settings Permalinks Screen itself:
“By default, WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them; however, WordPress offers you the ability to create a custom URL structure for your permalinks and archives. This can improve the aesthetics, usability, and forward-compatibility of your links.”
You can control how that custom URL structure is defined using the Settings Permalinks Screen.
