Dashboard Overview

When you login to the admin area of your site, the dashboard is the first screen you see and gives you a bird's eye view of content and activity in your site.

The "Admin" view of your site

Admin Top Bar

• Use the Admin Bar at the top to quickly Visit your site (see what the public view)
• Use it as a toggle to quickly switch back to Admin view

Admin Left Menu

Use the Admin Menus in the left to edit more detailed sections of your site

• Dashboard - access the dashboard of the currently active site, check under My Sites to view or access the dashboard for any other sites you administer
• Posts - to add/edit the posts in your site
• Media - manage the files you upload to your site
• Pages - add/edit pages to your site
• Comments - if you have comments enabled, manage the comments others make on your site
• Appearance - edit the settings for how your site looks including the sidebar and menu
• Plugins - activate additional functionality through plugins
• Users - if you have a group site, this is where you would add additional users to edit your site. This is also where you can update your personal profile
• Tools - a few useful utilities like import/export are tucked away here
• Settings - change your site's default settings including your site's title and privacy settings

See also: “The WordPress.com dashboard – introduction”