Do you want to customize the WordPress admin dashboard? The WordPress admin area can sometimes get too cluttered with widgets, menu items, and options added by WordPress itself or other plugins and themes.
In this beginner‘s guide, we‘ll show how to easily customize the WordPress admin dashboard by hiding unwanted items and rearranging admin screens. We will also cover how to change admin menus, and a whole lot more.
Here is a brief overview of the topics we‘ll cover in this article:
- Why Customize WordPress Admin Area?
- Hiding WordPress Admin Elements with Screen Options
- Customize Block Editor Screen in WordPress Admin Area
- Show or Hide WordPress Admin Menu Items
- Customize What Appears in WordPress Admin Toolbar
- Change The WordPress Admin Color Scheme
- Create a Custom Login Page for WordPress Admin Area
Ready? Let‘s get started.
Contents
Why Customize WordPress Admin Area?
If you have been managing a WordPress website for a while now as a webmaster or site owner, you may have noticed different widgets, notices, and menu items cluttering up your WordPress admin area over time.
As a veteran webmaster with over 15 years of experience working with WordPress, I‘ve seen the WordPress admin dashboard evolve quite a bit. While the core software aims to provide a clean user experience, plugins and themes can sometimes add distracting or unnecessary items.
According to WordPress statistics from 2022, over 43% of all websites run on WordPress. With more than 455 million active installs, WordPress now powers over a third of all websites on the internet.
With WordPress being installed on millions of sites, their owners often install plugins and themes to extend functionality. A survey in 2021 found the average WordPress site uses 16 different plugins. As of 2022, there are over 59,000 plugins in the WordPress repository.
While many plugins provide useful features, they can also add unwanted clutter to your WordPress admin dashboard and sidebar menu. Things like unnecessary widgets, menu items, and notifications.
Luckily, as an experienced WordPress webmaster, I know there are easy ways to customize the WordPress admin area and dashboard to hide unused items and create a clutter-free experience.
As you‘ll see below, you can customize widgets, menus, editor screens, color schemes, login pages, and more in the WordPress admin dashboard. These customizations allow you to tailor the WordPress admin experience to suit your needs as a site owner or administrator.
Let‘s dive in and see how to clean up and customize the WordPress admin dashboard and area with a few easy tips. I‘ll share examples and recommendations based on many years of working with WordPress installs and clients.
1. Hide Unused Widgets with Screen Options
The WordPress dashboard is the first screen you see upon logging into the WordPress admin area. It aims to provide an ‘at a glance‘ snapshot of your site‘s status.
Along the top of the dashboard are various drag-and-drop widgets you can customize:
Some examples include:
- At a Glance – Quick stats on content and traffic
- Activity – Recent comments/posts
- Quick Draft – Draft new post
- WordPress Events – Upcoming events and news
- WordPress Blog – Blog posts from WordPress developers
The problem is that over years of using WordPress, you likely accumulate widgets that simply aren‘t useful to you or your site. Unnecessary widgets create clutter and distract from widgets you do use.
Luckily, WordPress has a built-in solution – Screen Options.
The Screen Options menu allows you to customize what is shown on many WordPress admin pages, including the Dashboard.
Simply click the ‘Screen Options‘ tab in the top right of the Dashboard page:
This will dropdown a menu allowing you to selectively enable/disable widgets:
As you can see above, I disabled a number of unnecessary dashboard widgets like Events, Activity, Quick Draft, and Help. This leaves me with a clean dashboard showing only the widgets I need to monitor my site.
Screen Options allows customizing the dashboard to show only the information you need as a webmaster. Reducing clutter helps you focus on important metrics and site management tasks.
In addition to widgets, Screen Options also allows customizing:
- The number of columns on tables like posts and comments
- Which columns are displayed (e.g. date, title, author, status)
- Number of items displayed per screen (e.g. 20, 50 , 100)
For example, here are the Post List screen options:
Experiment with Screen Options on the Dashboard, All Posts, Comments, and other pages to optimize your workflow. As an experienced webmaster, customizing your screen options is one of the first things I do when setting up sites.
2. Streamline the Block Editor Screen
The WordPress block editor allows you to create webpages and blog posts using a drag-and-drop editor:
Since the block editor screen lacks the customize options of ‘Screen Options‘, you need to streamline it using its built-in preferences:
The Preferences popup allows customizing aspects like:
Interface
- Spotlight Mode – Focuses editor on one block
- Sidebar – Choose a sidebar layout
- Reduce UI – More compact options
Blocks
- Show/hide available blocks from sidebar
Panels
- Show/hide panels like Document, Design, Page Manager
As an experienced webmaster, I recommend these customizations to streamline the editor:
- Enable Spotlight Mode – Less distracting
- Use a single column sidebar layout
- Disable the Document Panel – Rarely needed
- Reduce overall interface options for more room
The result is a cleaner, compact block editor allowing you to focus on writing without visual clutter:
In addition, the Preferences gear icon allows collapsing the side panel holding settings and options:
This is perfect when writing full screen. You can pop the panel open only when needing to adjust a setting.
Follow these tips to tailor the WordPress block editing experience to suit your needs as a webmaster or content creator. A clean, no-distraction writing environment helps you focus on creating high-quality content.
3. Show/Hide Admin Menu Items
The left-hand admin menu provides navigation across all areas of your WordPress dashboard:
As mentioned earlier, plugins can clutter up your admin menu over time by adding unnecessary links.
For example, here is an admin menu made cluttered by plugins:
Luckily, the free Admin Menu Editor plugin lets you show/hide and rearrange all admin menu items.
Once installed, head to Settings > Menu Editor to customize the admin menu:
As you can see, the Menu Editor provides an overview of the entire WordPress menu structure, allowing you to:
- Sort menu items using drag and drop
- Show/hide any menu item
- Move items to different submenus
- Reset menus to default
For example, you could:
- Move the Pages menu under Site Content
- Hide plugin menus rarely used
- Restrict menu visbility by user role
Cleaning up your admin menu using Menu Editor results in an easier to navigate, less cluttered dashboard.
As an experienced webmaster, I recommend new WordPress users install Admin Menu Editor. Start with the default menus, then slowly tailor as needed once you know your workflow.
A clean admin menu with only necessary links helps you navigate WordPress more efficiently. Reduce the clutter to focus on crucial site management tasks for your role.
4. Customize the Admin Toolbar
The admin toolbar runs across the top of the dashboard pages:
It provides quick access to comment/post numbers, notifications, and editing functions. The toolbar also displays when logged in and browsing the frontend site.
Like other dashboard elements, the toolbar can become cluttered as you add sites and plugins:
Luckily, the Adminimize plugin lets you customize the admin toolbar on the backend and frontend.
Once installed, head to Settings > Adminimize and select the Toolbar tab:
This screen allows you to toggle toolbar items on/off for all user roles.
For example, as an experienced webmaster, I typically disable:
- Unneeded site management items
- My Account and Profile links
- Plugin shortcuts rarey used
- Help buttons
The result is a clean toolbar with just essential links:
Like the dashboard and menu, removing unused toolbar links helps you focus on crucial tasks. It also improves navigation speed when toggling between frontend and backend.
I recommend WordPress beginners play with Adminimize‘s settings to tailor the toolbar to their personal workflow. You can always reset it later.
5. Apply a Custom Color Scheme
By default, WordPress ships with several basic color schemes that simply change accents:
To go beyond these defaults, install the official Admin Color Schemer plugin.
Despite the name, this plugin comes from the same WordPress developers who work on the dashboard.
Once activated, head to Tools > Color Schemer to customize colors:
The color editor allows choosing custom colors for all dashboard elements, including:
- Menus
- Buttons
- Headings
- Backgrounds
- Links
- Text
WordPress beginners may want to start with a pre-built color scheme first.
However, as an experienced webmaster, I suggest taking the time to manually configure your own custom color scheme.
For example, here is a bold blue color scheme I created:
Matching the color scheme to your brand helps associate the dashboard your site‘s style. It also makes the admin screens more aesthetically pleasing to work in.
Don‘t be afraid to experiment with various color combinations until you find a scheme that works best for you. Install Admin Color Schemer if the default options seem limiting.
6. Set Up a Custom Login Page
By default, yoursite.com/wp-login.php provides a very basic WordPress login screen:
As the first thing users see, it helps to create a custom login page well-matched to your brand.
The easiest way is by using the drag-and-drop page builder SeedProd. No coding required!
Once installed go to SeedProd > Pages > Login Page:
SeedProd offers a selection of beautiful pre-made login page templates to customize:
Using the drag-and-drop builder you can:
- Change form fields and labels
- Add custom backgrounds
- Tweak text/colors to match branding
For example, here is a customized login page I designed:
Under Page Settings, enable ‘Redirect Default Login Page‘ so visitors are sent to your new custom page.
Finally, publish and visit yoursite.com/wp-login.php to see your polished login screen!
As you can see, SeedProd provides an easy way to create a login page perfect for your brand without coding.
First impressions matter, so take the time to customize the login screen your visitors see before accessing the WordPress admin area.
Conclusion
As you can see from this guide‘s tips, you have many options to easily tailor and customize the WordPress dashboard and admin area.
Start by using Screen Options to hide unused widgets and streamline your admin screens. Clean up the left-hand menu and toolbar to remove unnecessary links based on your workflow.
Apply a custom color scheme and create a branded login page to complete your new professional WordPress dashboard setup.
Taking the time to customize and declutter the WordPress admin will allow you to focus on crucial site management tasks with less distraction.
As an experienced webmaster, I‘m confident these tips will help you create a WordPress admin experience fine-tuned for your needs, plugins, and user role. Don‘t be afraid to continually tweak things as your needs change over time.
Hopefully you found this guide‘s tips useful! Let me know if you have any other questions on customizing your WordPress dashboard and admin area. Just leave a comment below.
