Explore the WordPress Classic Dashboard

1. The WP Admin Dashboard
Gain ultimate control over your blog.

2. Navigating to your WP Admin Dashboard
• Sign into www.WordPress.com.
• Replace the red characters of the following URL with your blog’s name:
https://NAME_BLOG.wordpress.com/wp-admin
to navigate to your WP Admin Dashboard.
Some of you may prefer to work in the CWP Admin Dashboard, where you
have more control over your blog’s features.
• OR, click the three dots next to your name in
your My Sites dashboard, then choose “Edit
Icon” to navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard.

3. Click on the Dashboard link on the left-hand side of the page.
• Screen Options - Use the Screen Options tab (upper right-hand
corner) to choose which Dashboard boxes to show.
• Drag and Drop - To rearrange the boxes, drag and drop by
clicking on the title bar of the selected box and releasing when
you see a gray dotted-line rectangle appear in the location you
want to place the box.
• Box Controls - Click the title bar of the box to expand or
collapse it.

4. Some the boxes that may appear on your dashboard screen are:
• At a Glance - Displays a summary of the content on your site and identifies
which theme and version of WordPress you are using.
• Activity – Shows the upcoming scheduled posts, recently published posts, and
the most recent comments on your posts and allows you to moderate them.
• Your Stuff –Displays links to your recent activity on WordPress.com. The
module will display links to comments you’ve left on other WordPress.com
blogs as well as links to posts on any of your blogs where you’ve recently made
changes.
• What’s Hot – Displays news from WordPress.com, top blogs, top posts and
latest posts.
• Quick Draft - Allows you to create a new post and save it as a draft. Also
displays links to the 5 most recent draft posts you've started.
• Stats – Shows you a graph of your blog’s traffic as well as links to some popular
areas of your blog. The graph works just like the graphs on the Site Stats
screens, so you can click a point to see more information about that day’s
traffic.

5. The left-hand navigation menu provides links to all of
the WordPress administration screens, with submenu
items displayed when you hover over a link. You can
minimize this menu to a narrow icon strip by clicking on
the Collapse Menu arrow at the bottom.

6. While in your dashboard, hoover
over the Settings link near the
bottom on the left-and side of the
page and click the General link.
You can change your site’s title,
tagline and more from here.
If you like your blog title, leave it,
but, if you want to change it, this
is your last chance for this class.
Remember, for consistency’s sake,
you should settle on a title and
only change it if there is a really
good reason.

7. • Hoover over the Pages in the left-
hand navigation menu and click All
Pages.
• The All Pages link will take you to a
page where all your pages are listed.
Accessing your pages

8. You updated your About page when you set
up your account. You should also add a
Contact page so that people can reach you
on or offline.
Hoover over the Pages link on the left-hand
side of your Dashboard page and click Add
New. Click the Enter title here bar and type
“Contact” or “Contact Me” or some title that
indicates a contact page.
Click inside the text editor and enter your
contact information. This would be a great
place to include your business’s address, web
site, phone number, email address and other
contact information. Explore the text editor
by hovering over the buttons in the options
bar and reading the tool tips and key board
shortcuts that pop up.
Creating a New Blog Page in the WP Admin Dashboard

9. You should also give your readers away to contact you via a contact form. With your cursor in the text editor below the
contact information you just entered, click the Add Contact Form button above the text editor.
WordPress will give you a preview of what the contact form will
look like. You can change the field types and labels by hovering
over a field and clicking the edit link.
Click the blue Add this form to my post button when you are
ready. WordPress has built your own personalized contact form
and you can now see the html code in the text editor.
When you are satisfied with your contact information, click the
blue Publish button in the Publish menu. You can also check the
status, change the visibility and edit publishing times from the
Publish dialog box when creating posts and pages. You can also
add a poll to a page or blog post by clicking the Add Poll button.
Explore the WP Admin Dashboard, dialog boxes and tools.
There is so much you can do in the WP Admin Dashboard that
you cannot do in the basic My Sites one.

10. • Hoover over the Appearance link on your
Dashboard and click the Widgets link. You can
edit the widgets that appear in your blog and
add widgets to your blog from this menu.
For example, this is how you would add a Flickr
Widget in the WP Admin Dashboard:
• Click the Flickr button in the Available Widgets
list then click the Add Widget button. To find
your Flickr RSS feed, go to your photostream
and click the "Edit" tab at the top. Scroll down
to the bottom of the page until you see the RSS
icon or the Latest link. Right click on either and
copy the link address. Paste it into the Flickr RSS
URL box.
• Click the blue Save button after customizing the
widget.
• Your Flickr feed will now show up on your blog.
Adding Widgets

11. Exploring additional Themes
• From your WP Admin Dashboard, click or hover over
the Appearance link in the Dashboard menu and
select themes. There are about 190 free themes you
can choose. Select the Free tab on the right-hand side
of the page. Make sure your theme fits your band,
product, message, business or organization.
• You can view a theme’s details by clicking on it. You
can also preview the theme.
• Apply the theme to your blog by clicking the blue
Activate button.
• Be sure to choose a free theme. The price of a theme
can be found in a green circle in the theme
thumbnail’s lower right-hand corner. Those themes
without prices listed are free.

12. Completing your Personal Profile
As a WordPress user, you have a reader’s profile. Do not confuse this
with your blog. You can customize your personal profile.
• From your WP Admin Dashboard, click or hover over the Users link
in the menu to open up the dropdown menu. Click My Profile.
From here, you can edit your public profile.
• First upload a Gravatar, which stands for Globally Recognized
Avatar, by clicking the Change your Gravatar link.
• Your WordPress.com account is also your Gravatar account - just
enter your WordPress.com username and password to log in if you
are not already logged in.
• You can choose to upload a photo from your computer, take a picture of yourself using the camera on your computer,
link to a photo of yourself online, or use a Gravatar from a previous account.
• Your Gravatar can be anything you’d like — a photo of yourself, your website’s logo, a picture you love, whatever. Keep
in mind that it’s not a very big image, so something that has a lot of detail is going to be really hard to see. Once you’ve
uploaded your Gravatar, you’ll be able to see it by going to Users and then My Profile. You can always change your
Gravatar from there if you get a new haircut, get bored with your Gravatar, or find another photo to represent you.
• Your Gravatar will appear next to comments you make on other WordPress blogs.

13. Creating blog post in the WP Admin Dashboard
• Click or hover over the Posts link and select Add New.
• WP Admin Dashboard gives you several more options than the Basic
Dashboard when you are creating a blog post. For example, you can add a
poll from here.
• Once you have written your blog, you can save it as a draft, preview it or
publish it from the Publish dialog box on the right-hand side of the page.

14. Logging out of
WordPress
• Anytime you want to log out of
WordPress, find and click your Gravatar
in the upper right-hand corner of the
page. (It will be a generic image if you
haven’t uploaded a Gravatar yet.)
• Click the white Sign Out button below
your Gravatar to log out of WordPress.

15. Sources
www.wordpress.com
Louise Jett