WordPress Dashboard Overview

By the end of this module you will know your way around the WordPress dashboard — what each menu item does, which three you will actually use, and which ones to leave alone.

• Recognize the main areas of the WordPress dashboard
• Know the three menu items you will use for everyday editing: Pages, Media, and the Avada menu
• Know which areas are hands-off (Plugins, Settings, Appearance, Users)
• Understand the admin bar at the top and how to jump between the dashboard and your live site

1. Log in as you learned in Module 1. You are looking at the Dashboard.
2. The left menu is the master menu. Everything you will ever do starts here. Hover over an item and its submenu appears.
3. The items you will actually use:
   • Pages — the pages of your website (Home, About, Contact…). This is where most editing starts. Covered in Module 4.
   • Media — every image and document ever uploaded to your site. Covered in Module 3.
   • Avada — your website’s design system. You will rarely need to open it directly. Covered from Module 5 on.
   • Posts — only if your site has a news or blog section. Works like Pages.
4. The items to leave alone (changing these can take a site offline — this is GM&F’s territory):
   • Plugins — the site’s machinery. Never deactivate or delete anything here.
   • Appearance — theme files and menus. One wrong drag rearranges site navigation for every visitor.
   • Settings — site-wide switches. One checkbox here can hide the site from Google.
   • Users — logins and permissions. Ask GM&F to add or remove people.
5. The top admin bar: the site name at the top-left is a link. Click it to view your live website; when viewing the live site while logged in, the same bar takes you back to the dashboard. This bar is only visible to you, never to visitors.
6. Ignore the dashboard’s home-screen widgets (“Activity”, “At a Glance”, news). They are harmless and none are needed for editing.

• Click through Pages and Media just to look — don’t change anything yet.
• Use the admin-bar site name to jump to your live site and back to the dashboard, three times.
• Find the Avada menu item and note that it exists — that’s all for now.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Exploring Plugins or Settings “just to see.” Looking is safe, but it invites clicking. Nothing in either menu is needed for everyday editing.
• Updating plugins or themes when WordPress shows an “updates available” badge. Those orange circles are GM&F’s job — updates are tested before they are applied. Leave the badge alone.
• Confusing the dashboard with the live site. The dashboard is backstage; the live site is what visitors see.
• Panic-closing the browser when something looks unfamiliar. Nothing happens from just viewing any screen. You can always click Dashboard and start fresh.