When you use the OpenLab, you’re using WordPress, the most popular software for building websites, powering over 43% of the internet. That means that when you do things like develop your portfolio, add a post in a course, comment in a discussion, build a club or project site to bring together people in your community, you’re learning different aspects of WordPress.
This August, part of the updates to the OpenLab’s navigation included updates to streamline OpenLab sites’ navigation bar (or toolbar). This also means that the bar is better aligned with the standard WordPress toolbar. Not only will this will help prevent conflicts with different plugins and themes that add functionality to sites on the OpenLab, but it will also make your experience on the OpenLab more similar to other WordPress sites you might use in the future.
Here’s a close-up guide to what you see in that toolbar when you’re signed in and on a site you’re a member of or that you’re the administrator for:
The Dashboard icon, which looks like a car’s speedometer, is how you can reach your site’s dashboard, the control center for your site. If there’s enough room on your screen, you’ll see the name of your site alongside the icon.
The paintbrush icon is a link to customize your site. This will allow you to change the look of your site. If there’s enough room on your screen, you’ll see the word Customize alongside the paintbrush icon. You’ll only see this icon if you’re the administrator of the site.
A comment bubble and, space permitting, the number of comments to be approved, is a link to comments.
A plus with the word New (again, space permitting), will take you to write a new post or add media, etc. When you hover on this area of the toolbar, you’ll see all the new things you can choose to create from here.
A little pencil with the words Edit Post (or Page), will allow you to edit the post (or page) you’re looking at if you’re its author or the site administrator.
When you make your window smaller, or you’re on a small screen, that toolbar will instead only include icons:
When you’re in the dashboard for your site, the toolbar looks a little different. Many of the same icons will be there, but instead of a link to the dashboard, there’s a link back to your site’s homepage:
The house icon lets you know you can return to the homepage. If there’s enough space, it will include the site name.
Now you have a handy guide to the new toolbar on your WordPress-powered OpenLab sites!
Photo credit: Free to use Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels