Ok in last two parts of tutorial I already explain how fascinating and limitless WordPress features can be and the simplest installation process among all CMS. As I promised this session I will concentrate on WordPress Admin interface. WordPress admin interface is neat and clean yet resource oriented. As WordPress support multi author blogging according to user level Admin interface will change. If you intend to use your blog as a one man show, just like this one, then you really don’t have to worry about these user level stuffs. But let’s say for the sake of general discussion we cover that part too.

WordPress admin interface login link generally located within the template, but not always. If you can’t find the admin interface link in your blog after installation, you can locate it in this URL: Your blog URL/wp-admin. When you install WordPress for the first time you will be given a generated password and default user name: Admin, which you can always change after the first login. WordPress Admin interface have 9 tabs, when you logon as an administrator, means full access. The tabs are as follow:

Dashboard: This Tab will be visible to all level of users and first to appear after successful login. By default it contain Latest Activity box which shows Latest incoming links (inbound links), latest comments title and commenter, last five posts title, Blog statistics. When you fist install WordPress you will find this box empty as no activity is yet recorded. Dashboard by default also contains a welcome note, some quick links around the admin interface and latest WordPress news. There are WordPress Codex plugins available which allow you to change looks and other activities like news etc. of your dashboard.

Import: This Tab is the last (9th) tab in admin interface, accessible and visible only to administrator level users. I want to discuss this first as you will need this first if you already blogged before and switched to WordPress. This allows you to import blogs and comments from other systems you may have before. Currently WordPress Ronan (2.0.5) supports importing from seven systems; this was six systems in WordPress 2.0.3. You can import your blog posts and comments from -Movable Type/Typepad, Blogger and Blogspot and Greymatter. Not only that you can import only posts from-Textpattern, Dotclear, LiveJournal and from any RSS feed. This import options is easy, just few clicks and all your old blog posts are in your new WordPress blog, no need to left anything behind.

Options: This is the 8th tab which has six sub-tabs under it. This is where you set how your WordPress blog will operate. The first sub-tab is “General“, where you can set date and time format, Blog title, Tagline (the sub title of your blog), Membership options/role, Administrative e-mail and blog home page. The second sub-tab “writing” dictate the options for writing/posting blog like- formatting, default post category, blog through email configurations and update services (This update service let you announce your post through out popular directories automatically after you post or update). Third sub-tab “reading” is for setting options for readers. Where you can set how many blog posts to show in your blog page and how it will appear to your feed subscribers. Forth sub-tab “discussion” will let control comments of your blog, here you will able to set admin notifications, moderations and comment spam control. The fifth sub-tab “Permalinks” is very important which you must decide just after you install your blog. Through this sub-tab you dictate what sort of Permalink (URI) structure your blog post will have. By default WordPress uses URI which carries numbers and question marks. Some URI change might require you to edit some file in your server (we will get to that later in another session). The last and 6th sub-tab “Miscellaneous options” allow you to set your upload folder and organizing them.

Users: This is the 7th tab in admin interface to control user’s profile and access level. There are two sub-tabs under it; “Profile” where logged in user can alter his/her profile data and the second sub-tab “Authors and Users” will be visible and accessible to only an administrator. You (administrator) can Add or delete users right from this console, not only that you can set users to different role levels- Administrator (full control), Editor (Control over post related functions), Authors (Only can publish and edit post), Contributor (Only can write post, but have to wait for approval to publish) and subscriber (can only read).

Plugins: The 6th tab which hold list of all the Plugins currently in your WordPress (active or Inactive). Through the first sub-tab you can activate or deactivate any Plugins. Remember Plugins will show only if the Plugins are located within your blog URL/wp-content/plugins folder. The second sub-tab allow you to edit Plugins, actually there is a notepad like text editor through that you can change codes of your Plugins without have to download and upload for editing. Only and admin can see and access to this tab.

Presentation: This is the 5th tab in admin panel. Presentation tab may have two or three sub-tab depending the current active theme. The first two sub-tab Theme and Theme editor is always visible regardless of the current active theme. The third sub-tab “current theme options” will be visible if the active theme has admin interface programmed (not too many of this kind around). The first sub-tab “Themes” show/list all the theme currently located in “Your blog URL/wp-content/themes/” folder. Most of the case you will see thumbnail view of themes above the theme name. You can activate and deactivate your desired theme through this control. Theme is the clothing of your blog; decide how your blog should look. There are plenty of free WordPress Codex themes you can download from Codex. The second sub-tab allows you to edit different theme file and save it within admin interface without have to go through download and upload hassle. Forgot to mention you have to login as an administrator to see and use this tab.

Links: This is the 4th tab. There are four sun-tabs under this. “Manage links” sub-tab will let you mange outgoing links of your blog. “Add links” sub-tab allows addition of new links and set several options for that. “Link categories” sub-tab let add-edit and deletes link categories to sort your link collections. “Link Import” sub-tab allows you to import your existing link collection from OPML file or hard disk. Editor and Administrator both have access and visibility to this tab.

Manage: This is the 3rd tab for management of your blog. Six sub-tabs under this tab. “Posts” sub-tab allow you to manage posts; edit/delete will be visible according to user level. You can search a post by keywords or sort by months. “Pages” sub-tab is almost same like “Posts”, difference is this sub-tab allow you to mange your blog pages. You can create/delete/edit static pages in your blog. “Categories” sub-tab will give you full management of your posts categories. Even setting of descriptions and subcategorizing. “Comments” sub-tab is for comment controlling. “Awaiting Moderations” is for management for comments that are held for moderation. “Files” sub-tab is a text editor which allows you to edit different files within your blog directory.

Write: This is the 2nd tab in admin interface. This is visible to everyone except the subscriber level users. You will find two sub-tabs under this tab. “Write post” sub-tab is the panel where you write your post, after you “save and continue editing” for first time you can see the preview of your post at the bottom. You may upload files through here as well as track backs and custom fields. If you want to make your post limited access you may set password to your post right from here. By default normal WordPress rich text editor is enable here, but you always can turn that off in user tab or alternatively you can use other text editing options through installing Plugins. “Write Page” same like write post just for creating individual static page.

So this is the small tour of WordPress admin interface. This will give a picture of what to expect when you are on with WordPress. But as I said before WordPress is highly customizable, using different plugins you can do almost anything, sky is the limit. In the next session we will discuss design of WordPress and Theme choosing.

[tags]Blogging, WordPress Tutorial, Session Three, Admin Interface, tour, WordPress, guide[/tags]