WordPress Editor Interface
The WordPress Interface in Editor mode
The top menu
(Reading from left to right)
About WordPress
This gives you some options for support. The Documentation link takes you to the WordPress Codex, which is probably the first call when there’s a question. Another good resource is wpbeginner. But a well-crafted Google search will usually throw up a well-crafted answer.
‘Szilverworks’
As this is a single-site installation, the only function for this menu is to provide a link to look at the site. (Network installations will say ‘My Sites’ here.)
You can also view the site by clicking on an individual page’s Permalink whilst editing, or by selecting ‘View item’ in the top bar. Also, when you have updated a page, a ‘View Post’ link appears at the top of the editor.
Comments notification
Comments are turned off across the site – except for these Knowledge Base articles. See Knowledge Base, below.
One of the quirks of WordPress is that various functions appear more than one place on the interface, which makes it confusing. Comments are one example – there is a second Comments menu in the Left-hand panel.
+ New
This is a shortcut to creating items in the site. However, it is better to copy existing items so you get the same elements laid out consistently.
View Item / Edit portfolio item
This command shows in the top bar when an item or post is open. It is especially useful when you have saved a new item and have finished checking it. You can browse the site to the next item or page you wish to edit or clone (see ‘Copy to a new draft’).
Yoast SEO
This is a very useful plugin, helping make the site accessible and Google-friendly. It usually notifies you if there are SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) problems that need to be resolved. More about this in the Admin section.
Kalium – Child Theme
In Editor mode the options here mostly don’t link to anything. There will usually be a notification here when there is an update available.
Created by Laborator, Kalium is the theme (or template) on which the site is built.
‘Child theme’ refers to the fact that the site is based on a copy of the theme, to protect it against being overwritten when the theme is updated.
There is more information in the Admin section of the Knowledge Base.
Copy to New Draft
This is a very useful link that appears on the top right when you are viewing the website and you want to use the page you are on as a template for a new page or item.
Wordpress Social
This is where you can take part in the WordPress community – having followers and commenting on other sites when logged in. Not sure how much people use this anymore.
G’day ‘Username’
This is where you log out of WordPress.
You can also edit your profile from here (see ‘Profile’, below).
Screen Options
Located just below the ‘G’day User’ menu, Screen Options allows you to edit the sections that appear on the working screen. Simply select the items you wish to see and deselect those you don’t. This is very handy when you find yourself scrolling through sections you never use, to get to those you do. If you can’t find something, chances are it has been deselected here.
You can also move sections so that their placement is more convenient – select the section title bar and drag into position.
The Left Menu
Dashboard
The Dashboard gives you an overview of what’s happening on the site. It can be edited to show just the sections you want to see – go to ‘Screen Options’
Jetpack
Jestpack is a suite of various site tools provided by WordPress. Be careful – some options are turned off since they interfere with the appearance or working of the theme.
These include:
- Settings > Media > Speed up images and photos – must be left disabled
- Portfolios – Kalium provides portfolios, so having Jetpack portfolios as well just confuses things
Posts
There is no blog in szilverworks.com, so no posts. Yay!
Knowledge Base
Knowledge Base is the plugin that provides the platform for this User Help section of the site.
Its pages can’t be seen unless the user is logged in as Admin or Editor.
Editors can also access individual KB articles from the All Articles screen.
Logged in Editors may add comments to articles. If you find anything missing, or confusing, please do ask questions or make suggestions using the comments below, as it will help me improve the articles.
To view the Knowledge Base home page go to ‘KB Home’ in the breadcrumb above, or to szilverworks.com/kb.
Portfolio
Szilverworks.com makes adaptive use of the portfolio features provided by the Kalium theme.
Portfolio pages are referred to as ‘Items’. To access these, click on ‘Portfolio’ in the left-hand menu. The All Items view will appear.
To quickly find a specific item, type its title in the Search Portfolio search field and click the button.
To edit an item: select the title in All Items view or select ‘Edit Portfolio Item’ at the top of the screen whilst viewing the item (you need to be logged in).
You can also do some editing of items from the All Items view. Hold the mouse over an item and an Options menu will drop down. Choosing ‘Quick Edit’ lets you change titles, slugs, dates, categories and tags, etc.
Mostly there will be no need to create a New Portfolio Item, as previously set up items will be able to be used as templates.
Go to The Object Level in the Design Series section, for more info about editing portfolio items.
Portfolio Categories and Tags
Categories and Tags are applied to images and items to manage and filter them for site navigation. How these are used is described in the Object Level, Series Level and Design Series Level instructions, as well as the Media section, just here:
Media
In some ways the Media Library can be thought of as the guts of the site.
Szilverworks.com uses a plugin called Enhanced Media Library to allow tagging of images so they can be managed more easily. Unfortunately you need the pro version to apply tags and categories in bulk, so best to remember to do this when images are first uploaded.
Portfolio Categories are the same as those used for Portfolio items, although images labelled with these categories aren’t called in Portfolio queries.
Media Categories are for broad top-level sorting of images:
- ‘Artworks’ refers to all images of products – design or artistic
- ‘Media’ are those images used in the About > Media page
- ‘Processes’ are images used in backend pages, including this Knowledge Base
- ‘Site’ images are logos, headers and navigational items
- ‘Szilvia’ are photos of Szilvia
There are further detailed instructions for managing images in the Media section
Pages
There are a few Pages on the site, but they are used to structure the site at the top Menu level, and new pages aren’t a day-to-day thing.
Comments
See ‘Comments notification’, above.
Feedback
I don’t recall what this is. I’ll update this entry when I come across it again.
TablePress
Tablepress is a plugin that allows end users to insert and edit tables without knowing HTML or CSS. It has been added particularly in order to better format the CV page (which is in my to-do list).
You can insert a table directly from within the text editor by selecting the Tablepress button.
Profile
In Editor mode this is where the user can edit their own contacts, passwords, language and proofing and profile image. Roles are managed in Admin mode.
Tools
There don’t seem to be any tools available in Editor mode. There are a couple of site import and export functions here for Admin.
WPBakery Page Builder
WPBakery is a plugin that provided by Kalium. It is used in the Portfolio items and other pages as an editing interface. So far I haven’t needed to refer to this section.
Settings
This section is also empty in Editor mode, unless Publicize is enabled in the particular user’s WordPress.com account. I haven’t looked closely at this, because Kalium already provides similar Sharing functions.
Note Press
Note Press gives us a messaging system where you can place Notes on other users’ Dashboards. It’s very simple and probably better than lots of emails or a complicated Project management tool. I was originally going to use it for this user manual, but it’s too easy for notes to be deleted.