4. The Dashboard

The Dashboard (Figure 4.1) is the first thing you see when you log into any installation of WordPress. It’s your captain’s chair, the tower from which you overlook the grandeur of your digital kingdom, the window into your blog, and a dozen more clichés.

Figure 4.1. The WordPress Dashboard, in all its glory.

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The Dashboard provides information at a glance about a variety of WordPress-related items through six panels:

• Right Now

• Recent Comments

• Incoming Links

• WordPress Development Blog

• Plugins

• Other WordPress News

Out of the box, the Dashboard customization options are limited, but they can be expanded with—you guessed it—plug-ins. This isn’t to say that you don’t have any options out of the gate, though. As long as you’re logged in as a user in the Administrator role, you can change a few things.

In this chapter, you take a look at the anatomy of the Dashboard. Along the way, I point out what you can change.