7 Awesome WordPress Plugins To Give Your Dashboard A New Look
Saad BassiIf you are a regular user of WordPress like me then you might get bored of the default user interface of WordPress. Although the User Interface of WordPress is good but there is always room for improvement. Automattic the company behind WordPress has decided to go for Open Source Design Contests to make the User Interface of WordPress even better.
Are you ready to give it a try?
Default WordPress Dashboard
In the article we will take a look on some awesome plugins that can alternate the user interface of WordPress to make it more users friendly.
1. Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu
Admin Drop down Menu is one of the best WordPress plugins to change the default user interface of WordPress admin area. The plugin replaces all the admin links with super charged and beautiful horizontal CSS drop down menu. The plugin also saves you from unnecessary clicks to expand the menu and enhances your productivity.
The plugin comes with a comprehensive options page. You can change the color schemes of drop down menu and to make the plugin faster, you can also disable the supported icons for each admin link.
An interesting feature is compact mode which only shows icons for top links and saves space in the drop down menu. The following screen shot elaborates this feature.
2. Fluency Admin 2.2
Give your WordPress an attractive look with Fluency Admin. The plugin replaces all the admin links with splendid vertical CSS drop down menu. Fluency also adds support of Keyboard shortcuts to your admin links hence enables you to control your WordPress with keyboard only. You can switch between full menu view and icon-only view to save the space of your dashboard area with a single click.
Fluency comes bundled with login page theme too which can be enabled from plugin options panel. For custom branding you can also use your own logo at the top of dashboard area and login theme.
3. Easy Admin Color Schemes
The default WordPress installation comes with two color schemes, grey and blue. This plugin adds two more color schemes for your admin panel. Moreover it also grants you to create your own color schemes. You can also export your custom color scheme to use it on other blogs. Depending upon the settings, each user can have its own customized color scheme. Have a look at the Green color scheme and the plugin’s option panel.
4. Qwerty Admin Panel Theme
Qwerty Admin Panel Theme is a nice looking Admin Panel theme. The permits you to style the admin panel and login screen for all users. The WordPress logos can be swapped the with your own logo images for custom branding.
A distinct feature of this plugin is ”
Limited Interface
” capability that helps you in hiding different admin panels from different users of your WordPress installation.
Qwerty Login theme
5. Pop Menus for WP-Admin
This simple plugin will be saving you time by creating quick and easy to use pop menus for your WP-Admin sidebar. Popup menus uses jQuery and CSS to popup animated admin-sidebar links. Moreover it makes the admin sidebar sticking with scrollable page that makes it a real time saver with the help of jQuery.
6. Adminimize
Adminimize is a very comprehensive and advanced WordPress plugin that comes with a lot of features to customize your WordPress backend. The plugin has a lot of options to hide unnecessary items from the WordPress administration menu, submenu and even the ‘Dashboard’, with forwarding to the Manage-page. The plugin has more than 50 options to tweak the backend of your WordPress installation. The following screenshot shows the admin option panel of Adminimize.
7. My Brand
Customizing your WordPress login page can’t be easier than this. Simply install this plugin and with the help of my brand option page you can select the background color or background image for your WordPress login page. You can also upload the custom logo for your login page with the help of my brand. The plugin is very useful for multi-author blogs and user contributed websites.
My Brand Options Panel
If you know more beautiful WordPress dashboard themes or ways to customize the admin panel of WordPress please share them with us.
For Further Reading:
Did you enjoy this article and found it useful?
Get even more from us:
Puneet
Posted 169 days ago 58This plugin is fantastic which make wordpress more reliable
WebZebedee
Posted 193 days ago 57Thanks for the article, EXACTLY the information that I was looking for!
WebZebedee
Dallas Web Design, SEO, Internet Marketing, Social Media
الاسهم السعودية
Posted 212 days ago 56thank you for this explain
I will use some of these plugins
I like this one Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu
Tim K
Posted 229 days ago 55Thanks for this article!!!! 4 of these things were EXACTLY things I have been hunting for for days!! Perfect!! Saved me scads of hours and hair-pulling.
T
Raymond
Posted 254 days ago 54I just created a simple tool to make installing plugins easier. It takes a list of plugins and downloads and activates them during installation. Hopeful someone finds it useful. http://www.wpkgr.com/
Mario
Posted 268 days ago 53Great collection. I will test some
simon
Posted 306 days ago 52I am a bit bored with the wp dashboard style so i was looking for a good list of plugins..thanks to your blog..I have found the right one for me…
Funwidmasti
Posted 310 days ago 51Thanx for writing such a lovely tutorial.!!!!
I have chaned my dashboard Theme..!!
Dave
Posted 320 days ago 50Allright, great list and great Effort! Thanks for the list!
Dave
rabbi
Posted 363 days ago 49thanks for this list of plugins i will be using them on my blog..
rabbi
Posted 368 days ago 48Thanks for this gr8 plugins I will be using them on my blog….
Kelvin
Posted 447 days ago 47Excellent list!
Sushyant Zavarzadeh
Posted 510 days ago 46I think admin menu editor is better for dashboard
Kunal
Posted 540 days ago 44Awesome submission of great customizing plugins.
Zashime
Posted 578 days ago 43Cool plugins, blogging will never be the same again!
anika
Posted 585 days ago 42Very good list without any doubt.
Casey John
Posted 585 days ago 41Great List of plugins! cant wait to test run some of these!
Mizan
Posted 593 days ago 40Hello I have a question. I am new in wordpress designing . I want to show all image of my site with similar effect in this page.. how it is possible?
Thanks in advance
Suneel
Posted 615 days ago 39Awesome list of plugins and that too when my client had asked one in particular. Never thought of so many options for the boring admin screen.
Thanks for sharing.
.-= Suneel´s last blog ..How To:Insert Print This Link Button For Every WordPress Post =-.
Tom
Posted 655 days ago 38Thanks for the article, nice 7.
Keller Hawthorne
Posted 715 days ago 37Thank you so much for this post! I’ve been designing a WPMU site and really need to alter the backend for my users. I found just the right plugins I need from your list!
.-= Keller Hawthorne´s last blog ..It’s Been a Year Already – Where’s My Internet Business Success? =-.
hanif IM
Posted 716 days ago 36very useful tips for my dashboard wordpress. may be I want to shared with my friends in my country. thanks before…
Bill
Posted 717 days ago 35I’m going to install the drop down menu plugin today. I get the feeling this will be one of those “how did I live without this” moments. After seeing these admin plugins, it makes me think that someone could design a plugin that would let you edit a page or post without having to visit the dashboard… like a wiki, I suppose.
I plan on sharing this with my #apu520 students. Thank you.
.-= Bill´s last blog ..800 days with Apple TV =-.
David Rowbory
Posted 519 days ago 45I’m writing a plugin now that will let you jump to edit any page from a quick popup menu right from the admin menu. Let me know if you’re interested in it.
Ben
Posted 731 days ago 34The drop-down menu’s are a fantastic addition to the dashboard, should hopefully make life much easier for me in the future.
Duvvar Design
Posted 733 days ago 33love is wp :)
this is thank you.. :)