The Administration Screen provides access to the control features of your WordPress blog.

You’re going to be spending a lot of time in the admin area adding your posts; editing them; uploading images; adding categories, tags etc. so it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with it.

Dashboard

Your admin is accessed via the ‘Dashboard’ link in your top navigation bar.

On every admin page, there is a wordpress help link at the top right of the screen… if you get stuck.

On the left side of the screen is the main navigation menu detailing each of the functions you can perform. (Note the nifty collapse button at the bottom!)

The large area in the middle of the screen is known as the work area,  showing info relating to your particular navigation choice, such as creating a new post.

The screens accessed via the main navigation menu are presented below. WordPress Screenshots shows examples of all the screens if you need to see them.

Posts

All Posts

 Clicking on the All Posts tab will list ALL of your posts and allow you to manage them from this single screen. You can edit, delete, unpublish and generally manage your posts from this single page.

Add New

Click on the Add New sub tab to create a new post. You can also access this page from the nav bar along the top of your site (note that your visitors will not be able to access these pages from their nav bars).

Here’s a video tutorial for writing and publishing a post using WordPress: http://wordpress.tv/2009/01/15/writing-and-publishing-a-post/

Quick step by step to writing a post:

1. Log in to your WordPress Admin Panel (Dashboard)
2. Click the ‘Posts’ tab on the left.
3. Click the ‘Add New’ sub-tab
4. Start filling in the blanks.
5. As needed, select or add categories, add tags, and make other selections from the sections to the right of the post. Each of these sections is explained below.
6. Fill in the WordPress SEO by Yoast fields to assist with getting better search engine rankings.
7. When you are ready, click ‘Publish’ on the right.

Media refers to the images, video, recordings, and files, you upload and use in your blog. Media is typically uploaded and inserted into the content when writing a Post or Page.

Library

The Media Library Screen allows you edit, delete or view Media previously uploaded to your blog. Multiple Media objects can be selected for deletion. Search and filtering ability is also provided to allow you to find the desired Media.

Add New Media

The Media Add New Screen allows you to upload new media to use with your posts and pages. A Flash Uploader is also available and a Browser Uploader is supplied if the Flash Uploader does not work for you.

Use the Links feature to add links to your blog roll or link to some of your favourite sites.

Your WordPress Links can be organized by category, have internal references, be automatically associated with images, and can even be rated on a scale from zero to nine.

All Links

The All Links Screen allows you to select the Links to edit or delete. Multiple Links can be selected for deletion. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Links you want to edit or delete.

Add New Link

Yup. Add to your blog roll. (Thanks, Captain Obvious.)

Link Categories

Links, like Posts, can be categorised. The Link Categories Screen allows you to add, edit, and delete Link Categories. Multiple Link Categories can be selected for deletion. A search option allows you to find the Link Categories you want to edit or delete. Link Categories can also be created when adding or editing Links.

A Page is another tool to add content to your blog and is often used to present “static” information about the site; Pages are typically “timeless” in nature. A good example of a Page is the information contained in “About” or “Contact” Pages.

Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology, and as such, are not displayed with the rest of your Posts, but are displayed individually and most often linked to from within your main menu.

All Pages

The All Pages Screen provides the necessary tools to edit, delete, and view existing Pages. On this Screen you can select the Page to edit or delete. Multiple Pages can be selected for deletion and for editing. As with Posts, a powerful bulk edit tool allows certain fields to be edited for a whole group of Pages. A handy in-line edit tool, called Quick Edit, allows you to update many fields for an individual Page. Various search and filtering options allow you to find the Pages you want to edit or delete.

Add New Page

The Add New Page Screen allows you to create new Pages. See the WordPress Pages article if you’d like to read more about creating Pages for your blog.

You’re going to be so much happier with your level of control over your comments!

Comments can now be controlled and regulated through the use of filters for language and content, and can be queued for approval before they are visible on the web site. This is very useful in dealing with comment spam.

In the Comments Screen you can edit and delete as well as mark comments as spam. Comments that are awaiting moderation can be marked as approved or previously approved comments can be unapproved. Multiple comments can be selected and approved, marked as spam, unapproved, or deleted. A section at the top of the Comments Screen displays the number of comments awaiting moderation and the number of approved comments. A search box allows you to find specific comments.

Detailed Comment Settings are discussed in the Settings Menu (further down).

We’ve set up a default theme for Food24 Blogs. This one. But… that’s just a jumping off point; don’t feel constrained!

Themes

A Theme is the overall design of a site and encompasses color, graphics, and text. A Theme is sometimes called the skin.

We’ve set you up with two different styles to choose from – and you’ll be able to change your headers and backgrounds to create any look you want for your blog… the theme is just there as a control.

Widgets

Widgets are cool gadgets or gizmos that you can add to your sidebar content. Widgets, for example, can be used to add Categories, Archives, Blogroll, Recent Posts, and Recent Comments to your sidebar.

We’ve already added a stack of really cool widgets for you to add to your blog so have a look around. You’ll find widgets for your own ads which you can sell and place anywhere on your blog site and widgets for your mobile theme (which people will see when they visit your site from a mobile phone).

And adding widgets to your sidebar is really easy! All you have to do is drag and drop them to the position you’d like them in within your sidebar. You can’t break anything, so play around and find out what each of them can do for you.

Header & Background

The Background feature allows you to manage the look and feel of the background for your theme.

If you don’t like the one we’ve given you, just upload your own background. In fact, I suspect many of you more seasoned bloggers have done that already!

You know how iPhone folk are always saying, “there’s an app for that?”

Well, in the Land of WordPress: “There’s a plug-in for that.”

You’ll find a few tabs for different plugins and widgets we’ve already installed for you. These include:

- options for you to display ads on your blog, and

- for setting up your blog’s mobile theme.

All you need to do is set them up if you’d like to use them. If you have any other suggestions of plug-ins you think would be appropriate across our Food24 blogs… let us know!

Users – Your Blogging Family

Every blog probably has at least two users: admin (that’s us), and the user account (that’s you). But maybe you want more; perhaps you want several authors for your blog. If you want a person to be able to post to your blog, that person must have access to a user account within your blog.

Via the Users option in the main navigation menu you can set up all of the user accounts you need, as well as change user information, or delete users.

An important administrative feature here is the Roles feature. Depending on their Role, different users have different Capabilities. Briefly, a user can be assigned the following Roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber.

You can also specify your, and others’, personal information, such as name, e-mail, etc. from these User Administration Screens.

All Users

You can manage the accounts of all your blog site’s users at the All Users Screen.

Add New User

You can create new users with the Users Add New Screen. (Aargh! Captain Obvious strikes again!)

Your Profile

This screen allows you to change any information related to your user account (avatar, display name etc).