WordPress Menu Bar: A Detailed Introduction

WordPress menus are mainly distributed at the top and on the left side. The top is for tools, and the side is the sidebar menu. Here’s a detailed introduction:

Toolbar

The WordPress toolbar is an easy way to access some of the most frequently used WordPress features. The toolbar is only visible across the top of the website when you’re logged into the WordPress dashboard and accessing the site; regular website visitors won’t see it. Through the toolbar, you can quickly access the following common functions:

• Access the WordPress.org website, Codex, or support forums
• Display the website control panel and other commonly used menu options to update the website theme, widgets, and menus
• Access the customizer to update various website settings and update the background and header images according to the theme
• View or edit your blog comments
• Add new posts, media, pages, or users
• Edit the current page
• Perform a website search
• View or edit your profile and log out of the WordPress control panel

Hiding the Toolbar

You can prevent the toolbar from displaying by modifying the preferences associated with your profile. Simply click “Users” in the left navigation bar, click your username in the “Users” list, click “Edit,” find the “Toolbar” option on the specific page, and configure whether to display it. Finally, click “Update Profile” at the bottom to change the configuration.

Posts and Pages

WordPress is built around two basic concepts: posts and pages. Posts are usually blog entries. A series of posts are (usually) arranged in reverse chronological order. What about pages? They are used for static content (i.e., content that doesn’t change or doesn’t change frequently). Pages like “About Us,” “Contact Us,” etc., are typical examples of website pages. In most cases, you’ll find that the content in the “About Us” page doesn’t change frequently.

For example, if you are creating a company’s official website, most of it can use static pages, such as “About Us” and “Contact Us.” The homepage needs a list of posts, such as company news, which requires publishing posts, and then a page composed of the post list. This is the specific use case for posts and pages.

Creating Posts

After clicking the “Posts” menu option, you will see a list of posts that have been published on the website. The information displayed includes the post title, author, category, tags, number of comments, and the date of publication, scheduled publication date, or date of last modification.

At the top of the page, you can see how many posts are on the website in total, how many have been published by you, or how many are published, scheduled, sticky, pending, draft, or in the trash.

When you hover the cursor over each row, some links will appear below the post title.

• Edit – Allows you to edit the post. This is the same as clicking the post title.
• Quick Edit – Allows you to edit basic post information such as the title, slug, date, and some other options.
• Trash – Sends the post to the trash. Once the trash is emptied, the page will be deleted.
• View – Displays the post. If the post has not been published, a preview will be displayed.

There is a checkbox next to each post title. This allows you to perform actions on multiple items at the same time. Just select the posts you want to affect, then select an edit option or the “Move to Trash” option from the “Bulk actions” drop-down menu, and click the “Apply” button. The edit function allows you to edit the category, tags, author, whether to allow comments and pings, the status, and whether the post is “sticky”. The “Move to Trash” function moves the selected items to the trash. You can also use the drop-down list and filter buttons. You can change how the post list is displayed.

To add a post, hover your mouse over the “Posts” menu option in the left navigation menu, then click the “Add Post” button in the pop-up menu, and then enter full screen.

Adding Pages

Whether you’re creating a “Post” or a “Page,” the process of adding content to your website is simple. The steps are almost identical. In addition to the way they are displayed on the website, as described earlier, another major difference between the two is that “Posts” allow you to associate “Categories” and “Tags,” while “Pages” do not. What is the difference between categories and tags? Typically, tags are temporary keywords set to identify important information in a post (names, topics, etc.) that may or may not be repeated in other posts, while categories are predetermined sections. If you imagine the website as a book, then the categories are like the table of contents, and the tags are like the terms in the index.

To add a new page, hover your cursor over the “Pages” menu option in the left navigation menu, and then click the “Add New” link in the pop-up menu. Alternatively, click the “Pages” menu option, and then click the “Add New Page” link below or the “Add New Page” button at the top of the page.

WordPress 5.0 introduced a completely new editing interface. The new editor is called the Block Editor. The editing interface has been redesigned to make it easier to create rich media pages and posts and to give you greater flexibility. The block editor is now the default editor when creating new pages or posts. However, if you want to continue using the old (TinyMCE) classic editor, you can install the Classic Editor plugin. The Classic Editor plugin allows you to disable the new block editor and provides the same editing interface as before WP 5.0. The Classic Editor plugin can be downloaded from the plugin directory on the WordPress.org website, or you can use the Plugins > Add New menu option, and then enter “Classic Editor” (without quotes) in the Search plugins… field to install it directly on your website. If you find that your theme does not work properly with the new block editor, or that some existing plugins do not work properly, then it is strongly recommended that you install the Classic Editor plugin to restore the editor to the interface before WordPress 5.0. If you change your theme or plugins in the future and decide to use the new block editor, you can simply deactivate the Classic Editor plugin. (Newbies can temporarily ignore this paragraph.)

Block Editor

The block editor is a completely new editing experience. As the name suggests, the “block editor” treats everything as a separate block. Each block can be inserted, rearranged, and styled separately, making the new editor more flexible than the old (TinyMCE) classic editor. The block editor provides separate blocks for all commonly used content, such as paragraphs, headings, ordered and unordered lists (i.e. bullet points), quotes, images, galleries, and anything else that could previously be added to the classic editor. In addition, the block editor provides other blocks that make it easy to add content such as buttons, tables, and columns. Rearranging content is easier than ever before.

The block editor allows you to drag and drop or use the block move icons to rearrange the order of individual blocks. You can also use the toolbar at the top of the block to style each block individually. The type of style that can be added to a block depends on the individual block. For example, a paragraph block can change the text size, text color, and background color, while a heading block can only change the level (H2, H3, etc.) and text alignment.

WordPress now defaults to opening the block editor in full-screen mode when adding a new page or post. Full-screen mode hides some parts of the user interface, such as the left menu and the top admin bar. You can turn off full-screen mode by clicking the options icon in the upper right corner of the page, and then clicking the full-screen mode option. Most WordPress users are used to full-screen mode.

Key Takeaways

• WordPress has a toolbar for quick access to common functions.
• Posts are for dynamic content like blog entries, while pages are for static content like “About Us”.
• The Block Editor is the default editor and uses a block-based system for content creation.

FAQ

1. How do I hide the WordPress toolbar?
   You can hide the toolbar by going to your user profile and unchecking the “Show Toolbar when viewing site” option.
2. What is the difference between posts and pages?
   Posts are typically used for blog content and are displayed in reverse chronological order. Pages are for static content that doesn’t change frequently.
3. Can I still use the Classic Editor?
   Yes, you can install the Classic Editor plugin to disable the Block Editor and use the traditional TinyMCE editor.