Setting Your Blog's Format

In addition to setting your personal settings in the Dashboard, you can manage the day-to-day maintenance of your blog. The following sections take you through the links to these pages in the Dashboard navigation menus.

Posts

Click the down arrow to the right of Pages in the navigation menu to open a drop-down list with four links: Posts, Add New, Tags, and Categories. Each link gives you the tools you need to publish content to your blog:

• Posts: Opens the Posts page, where a listing appears of all the saved posts you've written on your blog. On this page, you can search for posts by date, category, or keyword. You can view all posts, only posts that have been published, or just posts that you've saved but haven't published (drafts). You can also edit and delete posts from this page. Check out Book IV, Chapter 1 for more information on editing posts on your blog.
• Add New: Opens the Add New Post page, where you can compose your blog posts, set the options for each post (such as assigning a post to a category, or making it a private or public post), and publish the post to your blog. You can find more information on posts, post options, and publishing in Book IV, Chapter 1.

  You can also get to the Add New Post page by clicking the Add New button on the Posts page.

• Categories: Opens the Categories page, where you can view, edit, add, and delete categories on your blog. Find more information on creating categories in Book III, Chapter 7.
• Post Tags: Opens the Post Tags page in your WordPress Dashboard, where you can view, add, edit, and delete tags on your blog. Book III, Chapter 7 provides you with more information about tags and using them on your blog.

Media

Click Media to expand the drop-down list of links for this section:

• Library: Opens the Media Library page. On this page, you can view, search, and manage all the media files you've ever uploaded to your WordPress blog.
• Add New: Opens the Upload New Media page, where you can use the built-in uploader to transfer media files from your computer to the media directory in WordPress. Book IV, Chapters 3 and 4 take you through the details of how to upload images, videos, and audio files by using the WordPress upload feature.

  You can also get to the Upload New Media page by clicking Add New button on the Media Library page.

Links

The next item in the navigation menu is Links. Expand the Links drop-down list by clicking the down arrow to the right of Links:

• Links: Opens the Links page, where you can view, search, edit, and delete existing links in your WordPress blog. Book III, Chapter 6 gives you detailed information about links, link lists, and blogrolls.
• Add New: Opens the Add New Link page, where you can add new links to your link lists. (You can find more information about creating and managing link lists in Book III, Chapter 6.)

  You can also get to the Add New Link page by clicking the Links menu.

• Link Categories: Opens the Link Categories page, where you can add new and view, edit, and delete existing link categories (see Book III, Chapter 6).

Pages

People use this feature to create pages on their sites such as an About Me or Contact Me page. Flip to Book IV, Chapter 2 for more information on pages. Click Pages to reveal the drop-down list:

• Pages: Opens the Pages page, where you can search, view, edit, and delete pages in your WordPress blog.
• Add New: Opens the Add New Page page, where you can compose, save, and publish a new page on your blog. Book IV, Chapter 2 describes the difference between a post and a page — it's subtle, but posts and pages are very different from one another!

  You can also get to the Add New Page page by clicking the Add New button on the Pages page.

Comments

Comments in the navigation menu don't have a drop-down list of links. You simply click Comments to open the Comments page, where WordPress gives you the options to view

• All: Shows all comments that currently exist on your blog, including approved, pending, and spam comments
• Pending: Shows comments that you haven't yet approved but are pending in the moderation queue
• Approved: Shows all comments that you previously approved
• Spam: Shows all the comments that are marked as spam
• Trash: Shows comments that you marked as Trash but haven't deleted permanently from your blog

In Book III, Chapter 5, we give you details on how to use the Comments section of your WordPress Dashboard.

Appearance

When you click Appearance in the navigation menu, a drop-down list opens, displaying the following links:

• Themes: Opens the Manage Themes page, where you can manage the themes available on your blog. Check out Book VI, Chapter 2 to find out about using themes on your WordPress blog and managing themes on this page.
• Widgets: Opens the Widgets page, where you can add, delete, edit, and manage the widgets that you use on your blog.
• Menus: Opens the Menus page, where you can build navigation menus that will appear on your site. Book VI, Chapter 1 provides information on creating menus by using this feature.
• Background: Opens the Custom Background page, where you can upload an image to use as the background of your WordPress blog design. Like the Custom Header option (discussed in the next bullet), the Custom Background option exists in the Appearances menu only if you have a theme that has activated the custom background feature (covered in Book VI).
• Header: Opens the Your Header Image page, where you can upload an image to use in the header (or top) of your WordPress blog; however, this menu item and page exist only if you are using a theme that has activated the custom header feature (covered in Book VI). The Twenty Ten theme is activated by default on all new WordPress blogs, which is why we include this menu item in this list. Not all WordPress themes use the Customize Header feature, so you don't see this menu item if your theme doesn't take advantage of that feature.
• Editor: Opens the Theme Editor page, where you can edit your theme templates. Book VI has extensive information on themes and templates.

Book VI provides information about WordPress themes and templates. You can dig deep into WordPress template tags and tweak an existing WordPress theme by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to customize your theme a bit more to your liking.

Plugins

The next item in the navigation menu is Plugins. Click Plugins to expand the drop-down list:

• Plugins: Opens the Plugins page, where you can view all the plugins currently installed on your blog. On this page, you also have the ability to activate, deactivate, and delete plugins on your blog (see Book VII).
• Add New: Opens the Install Plugins page, where you can search for plugins from the official WordPress Plugin Directory by keyword, author, or tag. You can also install plugins directly to your blog from the WordPress Plugin Directory — you can find out all about this exciting feature in Book VII, Chapter 1.
• Editor: Opens the Edit Plugins page, where you can edit the plugin files in a text editor. We very strongly advise against editing plugin files unless you know what you're doing (meaning that you're familiar with PHP and WordPress functions). Head over to Book VII, Chapter 4 to read more information on editing plugin files.

Users

The Users drop-down list has three links:

• Users: Go to the Users page, where you can view, edit, and delete users on your WordPress blog. Each user has a unique login name and password, as well as an e-mail address assigned to his account. You can view and edit a user's information on the Users page.
• Add New: Opens the Add New User page, where you can add new users to your WordPress blog. Simply type the user's username, first name, last name, e-mail (required), Web site, and a password in the fields provided and click the Add User button. You can also select whether you want WordPress to send login information to the new user by e-mail. If you want, you can also assign a new role for the new user. Turn to the section “Configuring the Settings,” earlier in this chapter, for more info about user roles.
• Your Profile: Turn to the “Creating Your Personal Profile” section, earlier in this chapter, for more information about creating a profile page.

Tools

The last item in the navigation menu (and subsequently in this chapter!) is Tools. Click Tools to open a drop-down list of links that includes

• Tools: Opens the Tools page in your Dashboard. WordPress comes packaged with two extra features that you can use on your blog, if needed. They're Press This and Category/Tag Conversion.
• Import: Clicking this link opens the Import page in your Dashboard. WordPress gives you the ability to import from a different blog platform. This feature is covered in depth in Book II, Chapter 7.
• Export: Clicking this menu item opens the Export page in your Dashboard. WordPress allows you to export your content from WordPress so that you can import it into a different platform or to another WordPress blog.