Welcome to learn wordpress.org and the online workshop on dashboard and documentation where to find the answer.
Our objectives for this workshop are pretty simple to navigate the dashboard, feel more confident with navigating the dashboard? Because it is overwhelming, especially when I first started, I was like, Oh, dang, like, what is all this stuff over here? Do I need to know how to use it all? So luckily, no, because I did start and design my own website and got it live. And I didn't know half of it. So testament to you only need to know at least the basics right? Learn about the updated documentation. So there's a great WordPress is really up their game on wordpress.org has up their game on their documentation for what all the different things in the dashboard are. So it's a really like that, feel more confident with finding answers, what each block does, where to report a problem and the forums.
So I'm gonna go back, because these are my notes, just to have on the side so that I make sure that I'm going through, but here's my site, and here's my dashboard. I need to make this smaller. Alright, so our dashboard. And what we're going to go through first is I'm going to make it a little bit we're going to focus on this is called the administration screen. And it's made up of your toolbar at the top, the main navigation on the side, and then your work area within here. Pretty simple. So we're going to look at the toolbar first, okay.
And if we hover over the icon, you can see that there is a menu that pops up. So we have several different things. So we're going to kind of look through that. And these resources you're going to see in a several in several different places. So that's the nice thing that the information is right here. You don't have to, like save both bookmark pages anymore, and kind of things you can kind of, you know, if you're here, you can find the answer right from here. So our first one we're gonna click on is the about WordPress. And this is a new, a newer feature from 6.4, what they did was, they created a page that has what's new, and this is nice, because it tells you about the different versions and releases, and you can click on the documentation to find out what those notes are about. So if you're, if you end up like having a problem with a plugin or something, you can kind of go back and maybe troubleshoot or, you know, kind of point out different things. So the nice thing was is that it we also released 2024 When we had the 6.4. And it kind of goes through an overview of the different highlighted features that we're focused on for that. So it's a nice, nice documentation about that. Okay. Also, within this page, you have the credits, so everyone who worked on 6.4 and from there on, if you're new to WordPress, and you don't know about the four freedoms of open source, then please go ahead and read that page ivacy so for some information about that, and then get involved so this is about because wordpress.org is an open source project. It is kind of run by volunteers. Now some people that are part of it. They do get sponsored by their company so they might work part time. Do some hours. As for their, their company, and then some hours for here, some some, it's their full time job to work on this project, depending on what company it is. So these are the different resources, you'll see this a bunch of times, because we'd really like you to get involved, there's 20 Plus t
All right, let me go back here to the dashboard. And we have next our documentation. This is one of the new pages. And I'm super excited about this because the fact that it needs to be out there, right? We need to be able to find information without having to go and like ask people all the time. Because I think a lot of times you know you're always I'm kind of scared that you're like oh, it's a dumb question, right? So this gives you To the power, the power to find it yourself. And easily too, because a lot of times websites, especially like the government was like the DMV, it's like hidden what documentation you need to bring to the DMV to renew your license, you know, it's like, why can't that just be right in front. So this is very organized, very simple, okay? It has a couple of different headings right here. But then those headings are also within the page itself. So I'm going to focus right here on this dashboard, one to get to know the control center. So when I click on that, nope, like, Hold on, let me mess up my pages. Okay. So when we click on the dashboard, it gives us all the different categories of what the screen is, okay? This one's a little bit different.
Hold on,
let me get back here.
Okay, we will kind of go through this a little bit. But I want to point out, if you still have a Classic Editor, or classic theme that uses widgets and the customizer, there is still information here. If you have a block based widget, or block based theme that came out around version 5.8, there's information here for you. So it breaks it down into the different sections. Very nicely, which is nice. Okay.
All right, our next thing is support. So if we've gone through the documentation still can't find it. It, the problem has to do with the core, not with a plugin or not with the theme, it has to do with just kind of the layouts, the blocks, the sizing and stuff like that, then come here. And please go ahead and read the get started so that you understand what questions you can ask. So like I said, a plugin is usually developed by a third party. So they're going to have their own support. And so that's why you go into the plugin page, you go there, it says at the bottom, you know, support for that particular plugin. But again, here's the documentation, get involved, I really want you to get in. And then a couple of different highlighted forums that are specific. So installing WordPress, you know, fixing, so you can always check there first, and do a search of your problem. So that you can find the information, okay. And then the last one in this area is feedback. So, requests and feedback is not that you have a problem. But well, kind of that you have a problem, but not that you want to find the fix the find the fix is when you go to support requests and feedback is how can we make it better? Is there something that you might have seen somewhere else? Or that some, some step is frustrating you? How could we make it better, right? And that's where you would leave a request, you know, can you do this? Could we do this, okay? And those are the way you know, that's why we do these different versions is because then we take those things, we test them out in a plugin, and then we bring them into the main core of a theme so that they're easier to use. So that's what that is for. Okay. So I'm gonna stop there since we've gone through a whole bunch of things. Are there any questions? June?
I don't see any question that okay. If anybody has some, please drop it in the chat.
Awesome. All right. We're gonna continue on the toolbar. So the next is our little house and that means that this is our site. So my site name is a WordPress basics. Okay. There is a drop down that says to visit the site, and what that we'll do is take it to the front end. And I like to do a right click and open in a new tab. So that I have had still have my dashboard as a tab. And I have to move the toolbar here. And then I also have the front end. And I can go through when I'm making changes. After I hit reset, refresh, reload, I can see how it's looking, okay.
All right. The next is updates. So the toolbar gives you a couple of kind of shortcuts to, to things. So I kind of left this, to show you that what an update would would be like and we're going to do look at that a little bit closer, because there's a couple different places that are going to take you. So if I click on that, it's going to take you to this page, okay. You'll also see that the page is over here too in the man main navigation. So you will see some red dot. And you can see that the update has to do with a plugin, okay. But this is nice, because it's a whole Update page. So it's going to tell you what your version is, when it last checked for that version. If I, if I didn't have this version, it would tell me to install it. Now, right here, here is where the plugins are so that all your plugins will be listed. And then your themes too. If your theme has an update, it'll be listed here. So that's nice that it's kind of all in one place, you can do it step by step. So if you have a number of plugins, always do one at a time. And then kind of make sure you go to the front end, refresh your page and double check all your pages to make sure that something's not right. So like if your page is using a, a form, and there's an update on that form, make sure that the form didn't affect your form. Okay. The next thing is comments. So if you are blogging on your site, and you've turned on the option to have people comment on your blog, then you would get a notification of how many comments are there. Okay, so that's pretty simple. The next shortcut is a plus sign with the word new. And so we can do a post media page or add a new user. And those are four things that you kind of pretty, pretty much do on a regular basis. So it's nice to have that shortcut there. I do have another plug in. And that's why that's showing some of the plugins will have a shortcut up here. Or it might be down in the toolbar for set, doing your settings and stuff. The last thing is over here
We're good on questions. Okay.
Underneath the toolbar is two white buttons, and one is called the screen options and one is called help. When we click that open, what that does is it has the different elements that are within this dashboard. So when you first log in, you'll see this welcome to WordPress page and most people will hit the dismiss because it does take up a lot of room and you might not want it but it does have a link again to that page right there. Okay, so you don't have to go over and hover. And then it has where you can run some shortcuts to add a new page, open the site editor, and to edit your styles. And those are just shortcuts for that. So when I dismissed that, you'll see when I open up that screen options, that welcome gets unchecked. So if you'd like to see it back up, you can always check the box and it'll it'll appear back. Now, the other things are your Site Health, your at glance, activity, quick draft, and WordPress events and news. And these were the things that you can unclick depending on the circumstance, if you're working with a client, they don't need to see what's happening in WordPress, unless they are a techy person and would like to know, events and things like that. You can, you know, very easily just turn it off. Or quick draft it, you know, if you are blogging and you have a title, and maybe some notes about something that you want to, this is a great resource to have your Site Health activity, what I've posted in the last month or so, okay, any recent comments can be right here. And they can also see at a glance, so depending on who's using this dashboard, you can set up for different people. Okay, the help. So this has two different menus. So the menu on the left is kind of just some definitions and like an overview of what the dashboard is. So we have an overview, we have the navigation, what is on the left hand side? What does the you know, what does it do the layout of using the screen options, the drag and drop, to arrange the boxes. Yes, you can a
And apologies for my second we have a question. Sure. Ed asked that he doesn't have the screen option button. Is it specific to a Wordpress version?
Do you have a different? Well, you wish you if you're on the WordPress Dashboard depend
I would think that it is available
does anyone know that there's a toggle or something just turn that off altogether? I don't know. The only thing I can think of is if it's a particular theme that you've downloaded. That's taken that away is it a site that somebody else built for you?
Yeah, cuz it's, it's most WordPress. Right. And are you with the administrator of the site, Ed?
Thank you, Sally. Yes. No, you built it yourself. I see the help but not the screen options. Okay, I don't know about that one. Um, I, I will make a note about that.
Yeah. Oh, Coco mouth while you you missed this your presentation. Okay. Yep.
And is your version and you're up to date on your on all your versions right you're up to six point 4.3 That's the only thing I can think of. All right. I will ask my Yep. Okay. So yeah, we'll make a note of that. And I will ask people who work on the dashboard. Thank you, Ed for appreciate that. If I always if I have a question that I can't answer, always put the answer into the Meetup comments, if I if I find an answer for it, so.
All right, so we are in the help. Okay, so we have documentation on the dashboard. Again, support and forums, support, go there. And then again, this is a different version of Vince's the actual documentation that was put out on January 20/30, about the specific version six, point 4.3. So and then there's links to the different information, and then the summary and stuff like that. So that's the actual documentation for that specific release. As opposed to that other fancier one. That was just kind of from 6.4. And we, they just added the different versions to that. So yeah, so we have both of those things. And we're going to move on sound good. Awesome. Yeah. And please, you know, if you have a question, or you need me to relook at something, I'm happy to do that. So like I said, the other thing within when you click on the dashboard, between the home is that is the updates. So if we go into the updates, and then we can scroll down, I can click on Select All, and then just update the plugin. Since I only have one, I can do a select all. Like I said previously, please do one at a time. Because then if there is an issue that pops up, you'll know which plugin got was affected, affected it so that you can troubleshoot a little bit better than if you clicked all and clicked them all at one time. All right. All right. So our next section is the post media pages and comments. And this, this and appearance is pretty much where you'll do all your your work and stuff. So the post, if you hover over will have a all post add new posts, categories and tags, right? When you click on it, those categories will appear underneath it. So your navigation will get a little bit bigger in that instance, okay. So we have our list of our different posts, okay. And you have where you can edit the page, you can do a quick edit, you can trash it, or you can view it on the front end, okay. And then we have our author and categories, you can go to either add new page within the post here, or yo
like frosted, frosted cake. It could be let's see, oh, pancake, right. Like a pancake. There's different pancake recipes. So and then like birthday. And I can just use the word birthday to instead of just put it put in birthday cake, so.
But those are the things that you know, if you are doing blog post, and stuff to research this and to see what's best. And your posts can have a bunch of different tags. So you can, you know, do baking could be another one. So that I have different tags. Because if people are doing a search, like a Google search, then it'll pop up and stuff like that.
Can I pause you for a second? Yeah, I was just seeing that there was a bunch of chatter. So
yes. So um, Sean shared a response saying that it may be the level of your account. This is going back to his question about the screen option. So Shawn, I think I've pronounced that right. Apologies. If not, it could be the account level. So that might be a distinction. And then Edie also gave a quick update, he said that if you click on Settings, then the screen option goes away, at least for his view. And then if he clicks on a dashboard, home, it comes back again. So
Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah.
Thank you. Sure. I got it. Right. Yeah.
Well, thank you, everyone for figuring that all out. Appreciate that. All right. So next, we have media. So the media is all of our images, audio, video, documentation, spreadsheets, things like that, that you want to add. Now, just a FYI, from what five people that told me, It's better to do a link for a video because a video will take up a lot of space within your your database. So like set up a YouTube channel and do the link or do just a shorter if it's a longer one, you don't want to bulk up. And always optimize your images and stuff like that. Am I making you hungry with all these desserts?
Very much.
So there's two different ways that you can look at your images depending on how you, you like it. And things like that you can also have a look at when you put them in. So there's different months. And then there's an option to add a new media file and up here add a new media file. So pretty easy on that aspect of it. Pages. We have all pages and add new pages. So this is kind of you know, the wireframe, the the basis of your website. So you're going to have a homepage about I did a workshop on the group blog. So I have a page for that. A privacy policy and This is where you're going to create that basic page. And then here is the actual version of the comments. Like I said, we have the shortcut up here. But we also have it listed here. So you can kind of go through, and you have the options of approving the comments, clicking spam if it's a spam, so you know, there's different things to learn about if you are having that comments turned on. Alright, any questions for within that section?
Looks like we're good.
Alright, our next section is the Appearance, Plugins and users. So our appearance will take care of the themes. And let me bring this back out a little bit. Oops. There we go. Sorry, I was trying to minimize it and got kind of got stuck, there we go. So when you first log into a brand new dashboard, and I'm using local, which is an app that I can open up, and it opens up on my computer. So it's not a live site. If for some reason, you can't, a lot of people can't use local WordPress does have the WordPress playground, which I should have used on Tuesday. They've been working on this for the last year or so. And what this does is it's a a kind of a test site so that you could test a plugin, you could you know, try out new new features without harming your, your live site. So it gives you all the same functions as as the dashboard that I'm on right now. So just wanted to point that out to you, if you would like to use that. It's a pretty cool feature. And let me get back to my dashboard. All right. So we're in appearance, and we have themes. So when you open up, the default is 2024. And it also comes with the last two default themes. Now you can also go in and add a new theme. So if we click on here, there are over 6000 themes. So I would highly recommend using the feature filter, if there's something if you're a blogger, or if you want to do like recipes are, you know, like food and drink entertainment, narrow, narrow it down first, before you start scrolling, and then you're down the rabbit hole. And you know, three hours later, you still haven't found a theme, cuz there's a lot. But once you do decide on a theme, I highly recommend that you then delete the ones that you're not using because they're just taking up space, right? And file space, you don't want that, because then it slows down your website when you are doing that. So alright, so that's pretty easy. The other thing is the editor under appearance. So I'm not going to go into depth on this we do have a bu
Okay
we do have a couple of questions. Okay. John asked from the dashboard and the block thing not classic. How do you access the custom css file
Okay, so if I'm going into a page let me see if I remember this and
gotta click on a block, right In the event, okay, so you have to click on the actual block. Okay, so I'm doing the, the cover block. And then you scroll on the left, you click here next to, for settings, and make sure that you're clicked on the block. So we have cover, and then scroll down to advanced and open that up. And then you have additional CSS right here. For that particular block, there's a couple of different places to put it in. I know that other people might want to have all their CSS together. So that's a whole different workshop to look at for the future, great suggestion on learning about that. There's another question.
Um, I'm going to continue. So then we have plugins, and we have installed plugins. And we have add new. So this is where you would, you know, go into the plugin page and search for what you're looking for, like, if you want a form, you have different versions of things like that, to go through, and always, you know, read the reviews, and look to see when it was last updated. Those are my two kind of key things to look at, like how many people are using it? The reviews, what kind of problems did they have? And when's the last time it was updated. So like this one was five hours ago. And so plugins, and then our users. So we have
the all users. And so I thought there was
oh, here's the image, sorry. So this will take you to the all users, there'll be a list of the different users. There's their user name, their name, their emails, and what their roles are. So you can give them different roles. And those roles will then have different abilities within the dashboard. So you could have an author that can't open up the editor, they could only open up like a post, because then they would be doing like the blogging or something. A subscriber is somebody who like if you are getting people to subscribe to your, your, your site, so that in order for them to comment, so a lot of people will have that extra step for people to comment that they have to be, they have to log in first kind of thing. So you can have different users within that. Okay. And then add new user. So this is where you would need a username for them an email, and then you're generating the first password, you know, for them. And then here's the role, different roles that you can have. Okay.
We have a bit of continuation on the CSS conversation in the chat. Cool. Yeah. So it continuation on that is, Sally suggested that perhaps a plugin, like code snippets is an option. Uh huh. And then Edie also suggested perhaps it's under the Appearance and customization. There is an additional CSS. Yes. And so
yeah, it depends on what the what kind of theme you have. Because yeah, the customizer does have an additional CSS panel that you can add, but yeah, I've I've used the code snippets plugin Yeah, So you know, there's, there's a bunch of different ones that will give you a plug in. So like I said, all, all your CSS is within there, we just have to be careful with adding too much to that, because then it might mess it up too. But like somebody pointed out, you know, you're using, if you use a child theme to, there's a different version, you know, different things within that. So a little bit of homework that you need to do for those areas.
You had a note about where it was it. You Yeah, the Classic Editor has a widget and the customizer that you that are in the doc. And there's also links within the documentation, to block based widgets, block based themes were introduced in 5.8. So that has the block based widgets editor, which is a kind of a different thing. So they kind of you know, we're slowly pulling away from using the customizer, and things like that. So.
Thank you, Sally, I appreciate all your advice, all your input. All right. And then the last one, the last thing was the oops, way too big is the profile. So if you click on the profile, you'll get this page. And you can get this either from when you click on the Howdy, an edit your profile or from when you click on User and your profile. So this will be this little bit bigger. You can pick out your different colors. And remember, this is the admin color scheme. So this isn't for all the users within that. And then just the information about you Gravatar, there's a link, if you don't know how to set up a Gravatar. That's the image that's going to show up in that little space. It's connected to your email. So you're gonna do that. So documentation about how to set all that up? Is there. You just clean all that up. All right, so we're on to tools. We got about eight minutes left. All right. So we have tools available tools, we have the import and export. So you can import different things. If you are switching from a different website, and you need to import information, you can also export. So if you want to export those to a different website, a more detailed Site Health. So on the dashboard, we had that we had the little Site Health. So this kind of gives a little bit more in depth in some suggestions. But if you do have a managed hosting, though, like I my hosting, they take care of certain things. So there's some there's always some Site Health, red flags that are here, but it's and I actually was worried when I first started. And I had emailed them and said, Hey, you like my site not healthy? Like, they're like, No, that's okay. It's just that, you know, they have certain things that are turned on on their end. And so it doesn't, it affects my Site Health on my end kind of thing. And then there's export personal information and erase personal information. I'm not too sure about these two things. So definitely, like go into the documentation. And there is a whole
with that. Last is privacy, just a quick little overview of that. And then like I said, sometimes your plugins will have a settings for that. So that would be in in there. And we are out of time. Our last thing is the collapse menu. So this is just to close that up to give you a little bit more room, and you can open it back up. So kind of learn the icon so you know where everything is. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. Any last minute questions, I hope that this was informative, again, that documentation page are really love. So you know, take a look at what they're doing there. I'll make it smaller. The other fun thing too is your block the blocks. So if you are looking at all the different blocks, if we go into the customizer, it breaks it down, there's your Block Editor, ones default themes are all listed design blocks really like this page to the different media blocks, the text blocks, and it breaks it down into what they do. Classic block so I hope that I've given you a bunch of great resources to help you on your WordPress journey. Again, you can find us@learn.wordpress.org You can get involved with the learning with the training team. And you can also find our replays at we're at the wordpresser YouTube channel. So give me a day or so to get all that situated. And we'll take care of that. If you're interested in one or the other teams, you can also go to one of the other links that Jun is putting in for it'll show all the different teams if you're interested in one of those also. And then also, you know, look for word camps where they're starting back up they just had word camp Phoenix, different communities will have word camps I highly recommend if it's one in your area, go try and attend. It's a great way to network and to learn new things. And don't feel overwhelmed because I was a new person and I jumped right into WordPress us so I didn't even start small I started big. But I'm hoping to be at the speaker at some future ones and hopefully I can se