How to Customize Your WordPress Dashboard

WordPress is one of the most versatile platforms available on the Internet, enabling individuals to easily configure every single function in order to customize their websites as desired. Due to its ease of use, all users will be able to successfully customize the WordPress dashboard as desired using a few essential steps that are necessary in order to attain the results that you are tendering for.

If you want your WordPress admin panel to look better than now, you only have to go through the tutorial bellow, following each step exactly as instructed. This will enhance your WordPress training and experience, making you more skilled and offering you more perspectives.

Method One: Customize Your Dashboard without Coding

The first and easiest method you have for customizing your WordPress dashboard is the one that does not require any coding or programming skills. Note that this method works for both WordPress-hosted websites and personal domains with WordPress platform installed, as well.

Step One

Access your WordPress dashboard by writing your website’s URL, followed by /wp-admin. You will see several sections labeled “At a Glance”, “Quick Draft”, “Activity”, “Stats”, “Your Stuff” and “What’s Hot”. Each section includes different details pertaining your website’s content, as well as other relevant information, such as statistics.

Step Two

You can easily move around those sections if you want, placing them as desired in order to make accessing and administrating your dashboard more efficient. For instance, you can move “At a Glance” section in the place of “Activity” by dragging it there. Now you can move “Stats” below “Activity”, leaving “At a Glance” section below it.
Or perhaps you want to move all sections on a single column instead of two, as they are placed by default. Simply drag all sections on the desired column (in this example, the left column) and the changes in your dashboard will be automatically saved by WordPress.

Step Three

If you consider that one or more of the sections are not entirely helpful for you, you can easily toggle them by clicking the arrow that appears beside their label. Let’s toggle “Activity” and “Your Stuff” sections.
Go through the same process until you obtain the desired result.

Method Two: Customize Your Dashboard with a Plugin

If you want to do more than moving and toggling sections around, you can easily change the appearance of your dashboard using a plugin. There are several plugins you can use in order to customize your admin panel, so you only have to learn how to properly install it to your website’s database. Assuming that you have found the plugin that you plan to use, follow the guide below to install it.

Step One

Download the plugin to your computer or laptop. The plugin should be packed in a folder that contains the PHP file (e.g. “pluginname.php”), as well as other files, depending on each particular plugin.

Step Two

Access your website’s host using your favorite FTP Manager (such as FlashFXP). Select “public_html”, locate and access “wp-content”, then click “plugins” folder. Once you have arrived to the destination we mentioned, simply transfer the folder of the plugin that you have downloaded. You can either drag it from the location where you saved it, or right click on it and select “Transfer”.

Step Three

Access your website’s WordPress admin panel, then locate and click “Plugins” section on the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. If there are any other plugins installed or activated on your website, you will see them listed there. Now look for the plugin that you have just installed, hover it with your mouse and click “Activate”. Your dashboard will be automatically changed according to the settings of the plugin that you have installed.

Step Four

Now that your plugin is activated, you can easily customize the settings by going to its special section on the navigation bar, which should normally be placed right under “Settings”. You can customize a various array of settings, such as colors, and you can even add a logo image in your dashboard if you want. If you are familiar with CSS and coding, you can even try to modify the settings using HTML formatting. This will allow you to edit the WordPress dashboard exactly as you want, so you can make it more functional and use your website efficiently. Be sure to use the latest WordPress version in order to make everything easier and increase your chances of obtaining the desired results.