At PageMaster we want you be successful in your online marketing. We create websites and provide you training to see you succeed. This post is part of our series from our Site Training Workbook.
Another feature you will encounter often is the WordPress Admin Bar. This is the dark grey bar that appears at the top of every screen when you are logged in to WordPress as an admin. In fact, by default this bar even appears on the front-end of your site when you are logged in. This can be very handy for making quick edits to any page you are viewing while browsing your website. Let’s explore the Admin Bar a bit. We’ll explore the bar from left to right.
‘W’ (The WordPress Logo)
At the far left we see the WordPress logo. Mousing over this will provide you with quick links to all-things-WordPress. These links are not related to your specific Site, but rather to the WordPress software that powers the Site, and the WordPress community. If you are curious about WordPress, this is a great place to start.
Site Name
The name of your site comes next, and from there you can mouse over for a menu of links related to your site. If you are viewing the site from the Admin area (backend), this will give you a link to View Site, where you can see the front end of your site. If you are are logged into the site and viewing it from the front end (the area your visitors will see), this menu will give you access to Admin functions that affect the entire site, such as Widgets (pieces of content that appear in your Site’s sidebar, footer or other designated areas), Themes (the overall theme your site is using), Plugins (which extend the basic functionality of a WordPress website) or Menus (where you will set up or change the main navigation menu of your website.
Updates/Cycle icon
If no updates are available for your Site, you will not see this icon, but if there are updates available for the WordPress software or any of the plugins used on your site, this icon will appear with a small number next to it, indicating the number of updates available. Clicking the icon will take you to the Updates screen, where you can perform updates with a couple of mouse clicks. Because PageMaster Sites plans include basic maintenance of the software and supported plugins, it is best to leave this feature alone and let PageMaster handle the updates for you. We generally update on a schedule, and make sure that updates are compatible with your Themes and supported Plugins before applying them.
Comments/Speech Bubble Icon
Clicking this will take you to the Comments section of the WordPress Admin panel. From there you can view comments on your site, moderate them (mark them as approved or mark them as span or trash), or even reply to individual comments. Replying to comments is the best way to foster community and discussion on your Site.
This icon is dynamic, because it will display a small number next to the speech bubble when there are comments that require your action/moderation. When you see a little number next to the bubble, click it, and you will be taken to the action you need to complete (for instance, a list of comments awaiting your approval).
+New
This menu will let you create new content, in many forms. A new Post for your blog, a new Page for your site, a new media file uploaded, etc. Hover over the menu to see what types of content you can create from here.
Edit Page
When you are viewing the site from the front end, and your are logged in as an administrator, you will see the Edit Page menu item. Clicking that will take you to the Editor Window for whatever page you are viewing. This is a handy way to make quick edits to your site as you notice them while browsing it. For example, when viewing your Contact page, you notice your phone number is missing the area code. Click Edit Page and view the Content area until you find the phone number. Simply add the area code (or any other correction you want), then click the blue Update button to the right and your page is updated!
Howdy, Username
Your Username is displayed in the far right of the Admin Menu. From the drop down menu there, you can edit your user profile (for instance, change your password or the email associated with your user account). You can also log out from there.
Search
When you are logged in and viewing the website’s front end (what the public sees), you will have a magnifying glass at the very end of your Admin Menu. Clicking this brings up a site-wide search box. This is handy for making a correction to your site when you are not sure what page you need. For example, if you have made a typo in the name of a city you visited, but are not sure which blog posts mention that city, you can type it in the search box (the typo version of the name), and all of the pages and posts containing that error will come up on search results screen. From there, you can visit each and make corrections, using the Edit Page function described above.
More to Explore
There may be additional features in the Admin Menu related to plugins installed on your site. Feel free to explore.
Remember, the Posts and Pages on your Site have a versioning feature that saves previous versions of your content, and you can always go back to those versions if you make a mistake. Don’t be afraid to experiment and explore – it’s a great way to learn.