Administration Screens

The Administration Screen provides access to the control features of your WordPress installation.

Common LayoutCommon Layout

Each Administration Screen is presented in sections, the toolbar (and header), the main navigation, the work area, and the footer.

 

Toolbar has links to various administration functions, and is displayed at the top of each Administration Screen. Many Toolbar items expand when hovered over to display more information.

Main Navigation menu details each of the administrative functions you can perform. At the bottom of that section is a Collapse menu button that shrinks the menu into a set of icons, or to expands to list them by major function. Within each major function, such as Posts, the sub-menu expands when hovered over, and expands fully if an item clicked.

In the work area, the specific information relating to a particular navigation choice, such as adding a new post, is presented and collected.

Footer, at the bottom of each Administration Screen in light shading, are links to WordPress, thanking you for using it, and the version of WordPress you have installed is shown.

ToolbarToolbar – Keeping It All Together

The Toolbar contains links to information About WordPress, as well as quick-links to create new posts, pages and links, add new plugins and users, review comments, and alerts to available updates to plugins and themes on your site.

In the Toolbar, to the right of the WordPress logo, your site name is displayed as a link. Hover over the site name to see the View Site link to visit the main page of your site.

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Howdy, UserHowdy, User

On the far right of the Toolbar is “Howdy, User”, with an image of your Gravatar. When hovered over, this expands to link you to your Profile Screen as well as a Log Out link.

 

Screen OptionsScreen Options

Screen Options, displayed as a hanging tab under the toolbar, allow the user to decide what fields or modules are presented in the work area for a given Administration Screen. Each Screen may have a different set of Screen Options.

Click on the Screen Options tab to expand the options available for a particular Screen, check (or uncheck) the desired options, then click the Screen Options hanging tab to collapse the Screen Options.

 

HelpHelp

Contextual Help, displayed as a hanging tab under the toolbar, displays one or more Help items that are related to the Screen that is displayed in the work area.

Click on the Help tab to expand the Help available for a particular Screen, then click the Help hanging tab to collapse the Help display.

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MediaMedia – Add pictures and movies to your posts

Media is the images, video, recordings, and files, you upload and use in your blog. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or Page. Note that the Uploading Files section in the Settings Media Screen describes the location and structure of the upload directory.

The Media Library Screen allows you add, edit, delete or view Media previously uploaded to your blog. Multiple Media objects can be selected for deletion. Search and filtering ability is also provided to allow you to find the desired Media.

The Media Add New Screen allows you to upload new media to later use with posts and pages. A Flash Uploader is provided and the ability to use a Browser Uploader is supplied if the Flash Uploader does not work.

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PagesPages – Your Static Content

A Page is another tool to add content to a WordPress site and is often used to present “static” information about the site; Pages are typically “timeless” in nature. A good example of a Page is the information contained in “About” or “Contact” Pages. A Page should not be confused with the time-oriented objects called Posts, nor should a WordPress Page be confused with the word “page” referring to any web page or HTML document on the Web.

Because Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology, and as such, are not displayed with the rest of your Posts, but are displayed individually.

The All Pages Screen provides the necessary tools to edit, delete or view existing Pages. On this Screen you can select the Page to edit, delete or view. Multiple Pages can be selected for deletion and for editing. A powerful bulk edit tool allows certain fields to be edited for a whole group of Pages. A handy in-line edit tool, called Quick Edit, allows you to update many fields for an individual Page. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Pages you want to edit or delete.

The Add New Page Screen allows you to create new Pages.

AppearanceAppearance – Change the Look of your Blog

WordPress allows you to easily style your site by either installing and activating new Themes or customizing existing Themes.

  • ThemesThemes
    • A Theme is the overall design of a site and encompasses color, graphics, and text. WordPress site-owners have available a long list of Themes to choose from in deciding what to present to their sites’ viewers.
    • From the Appearance Themes Screen, you can choose which Theme will be presented to users visiting your site. You can also view screenshots of each Theme you have uploaded to your site. In addition, under the Install Themes tab you can find and install new Themes.
  • CustomizeCustomize

The Customize Screen displays the settings that can be customized for a specific theme. For instance, the WordPress default theme provides options that allows the user to set the colors and a background image.

The Menus feature allows you to create a navigation menu of pages, categories, custom links, tags, etc. that is presented to your visitors. A custom menu WordPress Widget allows display of a custom menu in the sidebar or other widgetized areas in the Theme.

From the Appearance Menus Screen you can create and edit navigation menus for visitors use.

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ToolsTools – Managing your Blog

WordPress Tools provide you the ability to speed up WordPress for your local machine, import content from other sources, export your content, or to upgrade your WordPress software to a new release.

There is a link to the Categories and Tag Converter.

WordPress supports the importing data from a number external sources. In many cases, posts, comments, pages, categories, tags, and users, can be imported.

WordPress Export will create an XML file for you to save to your computer. The format, which is called a WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR file, will contain your posts, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags.

Settings – Configuration SettingsSettings – Configuration Settings

In the Settings Administration Screen are all of the settings that define your blog as a whole: settings which determine how your site behaves, how you interact with your site, and how the rest of the world interacts with your site.

The Settings Administration Screen and controls some of the most basic configuration settings for your site: your site’s title and location, who may register an account at your blog, and how dates and times are calculated and displayed.

Using the Settings Writing Screen, you can control the interface with which you write new posts. These settings control the default Category, the default Post Format, and the optional feature.

The settings in the posts, or a “static” Page, displayed as your blog’s front (main) page. You can also adjust how many posts are displayed on that main page. In addition, you can adjust syndication feed features to determine how the information from your site is sent to a reader’s web browser or other applications.

The Settings Media Screen allows you to determine how images, documents, and other media files will be organized when uploaded, and to specify the maximum dimensions in pixels to use when inserting an image into the body of a post.

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.

The Settings Permalinks Screen controls how that custom URL structure is defined.