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Hello Happy site owners! I'm MaAnna with BlogAid and in this video I'll give you a quick tour
of the links you'll use most on the new WordPress 3.6 Dashboard. So let's dive in.
The first screen you'll see when you install or upgrade to WordPress 3.6 is a new welcome
page that tells you about the new features. All of them are covered in detail in other
BlogAid video tutorials, but you may want to have a quick look here just to see what
has changed.
You can dismiss this page.
Or you can simply click the Dashboard link to go to the page you normally see when you
log in.
Keep in mind that WordPress is a CMS or Content Management System. Basically, it's a fancy
user interface for a database. Knowing this one thing will help you be more successful.
All of the links in this left sidebar give you access to all of the user interface pages,
or admin pages as they are called. These are where you manage the content that is held
in the database.
When you hover over one, you'll see a flyout menu for sub-links, if it has any, most do.
When you click the main link, it will take you to the first sub-link.
The first link is the name of your site. When you click it, or the first sub-link, you'll
be taken to the home page of your site as the public would view it.
Let's click that.
Now when you hover over it, the most popular admin links appear. If you click this, or
Dashboard, you'll be taken back to where you were. So, let's do that.
An item you don't see here right now is for Updates, and it will appear between the comments
bubble and the Add New link if you have updates available. You'll see little red circle with
a number representing the total number of updates available.
You'll see that same circle and number in the Updates sub-link of the Dashboard section.
And, you'll see a circle with a number in the Plugins link section too. Now, something
to keep in mind is that the number in the Updates section and the one in the Plugins
section may not be the same because updates can include updates to WordPress or your theme
too, not just plugin updates.
It is critically important that you keep everything on your site up to date. That includes WordPress,
your theme, and your plugins. Most of the updates are to either fix bugs or patch security
holes.
The next link in the black bar is Add New and then when you hover over it you'll see
sub-links to the areas you'll use most for adding new things, like posts, uploads to
your media library such as images, and pages.
You may see other shortcuts in this admin bar, depending on what plugins you have installed.
On the far right of the admin bar is where you can update your profile or log out of
WordPress. And, it's always better to log out than to simply close your browser when
you're finished making changes to your site. If you're wondering how to get your picture
in here, it's by adding the same email address you use for your Gravatar in your User profile.
Be sure to watch the video in the WordPress Advanced section of the BlogAid Video Library
for more on all the things you need to set up in your User profile. And, if you're hooking
up your site to your G+ profile, see the SEO and AuthorRank Video Course.
The links down the left sidebar are your other admin pages and they will be available no
matter what admin page you view, as will the black admin shortcut bar at the top.
When you click these links what changes is the content to the right. These are all of
the modules available in the Dashboard.
The first module is titled Right Now and it gives you a quick peek into what's happening
on your site.
For the most part, you'll be paying attention to the information on the right where you
can see if you have comments on your blog posts and how many have been flagged as spam.
You can also see what theme you're using and the current version of WordPress that's installed.
The next module is Recent Comments and it let's you quickly preview who has left a comment
and for which post.
You'll notice that when you hover over the comment, several links appear for you to approve
it, reply, delete, or mark it as spam.
The next module is for Incoming Links and used to let you see who linked to your site.
These are called backlinks, and the more of them you get, the more popular Google thinks
your site is, and you rise in the rankings. But, because those are both attractive to
spammers, and now hackers, fewer folks are using them. You are much better off connecting
your site to Google Webmaster Tools and looking at your backlinks there to see them all.
The SEO and AuthorRank Video Course includes instructions for submitting and verifying
your site on Google Webmaster Tools, as well as on creating and submitting your XML Sitemap.
The last module in the first column features new and popular Plugins.
It's a good idea to follow folks like me to keep informed about plugins. There are thousands
of them already in the WordPress Plugins repository and 20-30 are being added every day. Please
visit the Plugins Resource page on BlogAid for a full list of top plugins, and subscribe
to my blog posts to be sure you get Tips Tuesday, which is where I most often report on new
plugins, and those that are having issues.
You probably won't use many of the other modules on the page, except for Recent Drafts.
You can de-clutter your page in two ways. Simply click the down arrow to collapse a
module.
Or, click on the Screen options tab to expand it, and then uncheck the box for any modules
you don't want to see.
Now, let's have a look at the other admin links you'll be using most often.
The next link is for Posts. And there is a link down here for Pages.
These two tend to really confuse new site owners, especially if they're using a static
page for their site's home page. No matter what you use for your home page, you will
always click the Posts link for creating a post on your blog. And you'll click the Pages
link for creating new pages.
More on that topic is covered in the Posts and Pages video tutorial, and there's a tutorial
for the different options of configuring your home page, depending on what type of theme
you are using. That includes setting a static page as the home page of your site instead
of the default, which is what's called a posts page.
You can go to the All Posts listings page, which is the same page you'd go to if you
clicked the main link.
This shows you a listing of all of your blog posts. You can click a title or the Edit link
to go to the page with a text editor to change a post.
The next sub-link is Add New and it takes you to an empty post text editor page where
you can create a new blog post.
The next two sub-links are for creating or editing your post Categories and Tags. Be
sure to watch the video tutorial on using Categories in the WordPress Advanced section
because they are one of the most powerful features of WordPress.
The Media link takes you to your Media Library list.
And the next sub-link allows you to upload new media. Most folks upload media as needed,
like images, while they are working in the post or page text editor.
The next link you're likely to use most is for creating your site Pages.
Like the Posts link, it takes you to a list of all your pages and has sub-links for creating
new ones.
The next set of links are mainly about site control and administration.
The first one is Appearance.
When you click Themes, you can see your current theme and install a new one from here. Be
sure to see the video tutorial on how to search for themes in the WordPress repository and
how to install them. It's in the WordPress Basics section under Site Setup.
I'm clicking the Widgets sub-link. Here's where you manage the widgets that appear in
your sidebar or other places on your site, depending on the complexity of your theme.
Many premium themes have home pages that are built entirely out of widget-ready areas.
So, the types of widget-ready areas you see on the right will depend entirely on the theme
that you use.
Be sure to see the video tutorials on working with widgets and plugins, and if you have
a premium theme like Genesis, there are videos on that as well.
The Menus sub-link takes you to a page where you can create custom menus that will appear
in your navigation bar at the top of your site or in your sidebar. Be sure to see the
video tutorial in the WordPress Basics section on Custom Menus, which covers that process
in detail. That is one of the admin pages that got an overhaul for WordPress 3.6.
The last one here is for the Editor and this shows the code that controls your theme and
site functions. Unless you are an expert at code, I suggest you stay away from this sub-link.
You may see other links here and they will vary depending on your theme and what plugins
you have installed. I'm using the new Twenty Thirteen theme that comes preloaded with WordPress
3.6 and it supports customization options for the Header and Background. So do many
of the themes in the WordPress themes repository.
The Plugins link will show you a list of all the plugins you have installed. This Editor
link will show you the code that drives a plugin. Again, unless you are an expert in
code, you want to stay away from this.
Most of the time settings for plugins will be listed in the Settings admin page. Also,
be sure to look in the WordPress Basics section for videos with more details on using plugins
and widgets.
The Users link will show you a list of the current Users for your site, which means it
shows who can log in to your site. This is another area that you don't want to modify
unless you know what you're doing. However, if the user is the default of admin, that's
a security issue on your site and you'll want to watch the User Profile video tutorial in
the Advanced section under the SEO category to help you change that.
The last link is for Settings and you'll want to ensure that all of the settings for your
site are correct. Those are covered in detail across several videos in the BlogAid video
library.
And, the very last link here is to collapse this menu.
Doing so gives you a lot more screen real estate in the content area.
To expand it, just click it again.
I hope you've enjoyed this video tour of the WordPress 3.6 Dashboard. It's the same type
of information I offer in the one-on-one WordPress training classes where I go more in-depth
and show you how to use all of the features of the Admin pages based on your unique needs.
Visit BlogAid.net where you'll find more video tutorials, resources, and free downloads to
make your site better.