10 WordPress Plugins For Better Backend Administration

One of the best parts about WordPress is how easy it is to customize with plugins. To illustrate its flexibility, here are a few examples of what you can do on your WordPress site with plugins:

Even though WordPress is designed to cater to as many scenarios as possible, you might want to change things like removing a menu from the Dashboard for particular users, or to simplify the backend for less technically savvy users such as your clients, or even to better and more easily manage widgets. Here are 10 handy plugins that will give you all that and more.

Recommended Reading: Find And Install WordPress Plugins Through Github

1. Adminimize

Adminimize is the plugin to install if you let your clients have access to the backend. It gives you more control over which part of the WordPress backend to hide or display for users. Some sections you can control with this plugin include the administration menu, the post and page editing screen, the Help menu at the top right of every administration page, the menu in the admin bar and many more.

2. Client Dash

Once activated, Client Dash simplifies the WordPress dashboard. It replaces the default Dashboard widget with menus that matter most to clients in general, which include the menu to their Account and the summary of website content like posts and pages.

3. Dashboard Widget Sidebar

There are actually two types of widget in WordPress. One, the website widget which is displayed in the front-end, and secondly, the widget inside the Dashboard. Adding the website widget is easily done through the Appearance > Widgets with drag-and-drop. Install this plugin, Dashboard Widget Sidebar, so you are also able to add new widget in the Dashboard just as easily through the Widgets menu.

4. Remove Dashboard Access

If you think that clients should not be allowed to access to the Dashboard, you can install Remove Dashboard Access. This plugin allows you to control and block Dashboard access for non-administrative users.

5. Wider Admin Menu

Sometimes, when you install a new plugin, it adds a new menu in the WordPress administration. The bad news is that the menu sometimes is longer than the WordPress admin menu width resulting in the name being split into two lines. Install Wider Admin Menu to widen the menu width in the backend.

6. Admin Color Schemer

WordPress 3.8 has brought a completely revamped look for the Dashboard. The Dashboard new look is designed through SCSS, and if you are familiar with SCSS you can certainly create a new one by yourself. For those of you who are not up to write SCSS code, install Admin Color Schemer and you can customize the Dashboard theme with a few clicks. For a more in-depth review, check out my earlier review.

7. Admin Bar Button

Admin Bar Button is a plugin that simplifies the WordPress admin bar that appears at the top when you are logged-in. Instead of spanning fully across the window, this plugin will turn the bar into a button (as shown below) and will be fully revealed upon click or hover. The plugin gives options through the Settings > Admin Bar Button menu to define button behaviours as well as its positions.

8. WP Help

WP Help is a plugin that will help you teach clients or anyone who are unfamiliar with WordPress how to get about in the backend. This plugin adds a new section below the Dashboard menu where you can create hierarchical sections of tutorials such as for creating post and pages or editing posts.

9. Dashboard Notes

Dashboard Notes, as the name implies, will add notes to the dashboard. The notes added will appear at the top of the Dashboard widget. You can add color to the note or add your logo to better grab one’s attention. This plugin will be particularly useful when you want to notify users with backend access of something important.

10. WP-Hotkeys

WP-Hotkeys is a plugin that adds keyboard shortcuts to WordPress administration so you can navigate throughout the backend area including the post editing screen simply by using the keyboard. If you are a keyboard master or prefer using the keyboard rather than any other interaction peripheral, then you will probably love this plugin.