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The MainWP Dashboard interface has two primary navigation areas: the Main Navigation Panel on the left and the Header Menu at the top. This guide covers each element and how to use them effectively.
What You Will Accomplish
After watching the video and reviewing this page, you will be able to:- Identify the main navigation panel sections and their purposes
- Use header menu elements including the sync button, Add New dropdown, and Screen Options
- Navigate directly to any child site using Quick Site Shortcuts
- Access help documentation and community resources from the header
Prerequisites
- MainWP Dashboard installed and activated on your Dashboard site
- At least one child site connected (recommended for following along with the video)
Quick Reference
| Element | Location | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Main Navigation Panel | Left sidebar | Access all MainWP sections (Sites, Updates, Plugins, etc.) |
| Sync Dashboard Button | Header (left) | Fetch fresh data from all child sites |
| Add New Button | Header | Quick-add sites, posts, pages, plugins, themes, or users |
| Screen Options (cog icon) | Header | Customize page layout and visible widgets |
| Quick Site Shortcuts | Header | Jump directly to a specific child site’s overview or updates |
| Help Icon (lifebuoy) | Header | Open documentation for the current page |
| Community Button | Header | Access the MainWP user community |
| Account Button | Header (right) | Go to your MainWP.com account |
| Update Alert (red icon) | Header | Indicates non-MainWP updates available for your Dashboard site |
Main Navigation Panel
When your WordPress site enters MainWP Dashboard mode, the standard WordPress admin menu is replaced with the MainWP navigation panel. This sidebar provides access to:- Overview – Dashboard summary and widgets
- Updates – Pending updates across all sites
- Sites – Manage connected child sites
- Posts – Create and manage posts across sites
- Pages – Create and manage pages across sites
- Themes – Install and manage themes
- Plugins – Install and manage plugins
- Users – Manage users across sites
- Settings – Configure MainWP preferences
- Extensions – Manage installed extensions
- Status – System information and server details
Header Menu Elements
Sync Dashboard Button
The sync button fetches current data from all connected child sites. MainWP automatically syncs once daily, but you can trigger a manual sync at any time by clicking this button.Add New Button
This dropdown provides quick access to creation screens:- Add new website
- Add new post
- Add new page
- Add new plugin
- Add new theme
- Add new user
Screen Options
The cog icon opens screen options for customizing the current page. Available options vary by page and may include:- Showing or hiding specific widgets
- Switching between one and two-column layouts
- Toggling the Update Everything button visibility
Quick Site Shortcuts
Jump directly to a specific child site’s Overview or Updates page. The dropdown lists all connected sites for quick navigation without returning to the Sites list.Help and Community
- Lifebuoy icon – Opens the knowledge base article for your current page
- Community button – Links to the MainWP user community forums
Account and Dashboard Updates
- Account button – Opens your MainWP.com My Account page
- Red exclamation point – Appears when your Dashboard site has non-MainWP updates available. Click to view and install these updates through the standard WordPress update screen.
Self-Check Checklist
Verify you understand the MainWP navigation:- You can locate the main navigation panel on the left sidebar
- You know how to trigger a manual sync using the Sync Dashboard button
- You can use the Add New dropdown to access creation screens
- You understand how to access and use Screen Options (cog icon) to customize page layouts
- You can use Quick Site Shortcuts to jump directly to a specific child site
Related Topics
- MainWP User Interface – Comprehensive guide to widgets, tables, and advanced interface features
- Getting started with MainWP – Installation and initial setup
Full Video Transcript
Full Video Transcript
IntroductionHi everyone, this is Dennis with MainWP. In this video, I’m going to go over the basic MainWP Dashboard Navigation. This is the Overview page that you see when you log in to your Dashboard. For this video, we’re going to ignore the center part of the screen and instead focus on our Main navigation bar over here and our Header navigation bar over here.Main Navigation PanelWe have the MainWP Main navigation panel when your WordPress site is in MainWP Dashboard mode. This navigation replaces the normal WordPress admin menu and provides quick access to all MainWP sections. Going down the list, we have Overview, Updates, Sites, Posts, Pages, Themes, Plugins, Users, Settings, Extensions, and Status.When you see one of these left-pointed arrows, it means that you can expand that menu and see the subsections contained there. If you go to the very bottom of this menu, you’ll see the option to return to your normal WordPress admin. We’ll just click that, and you’re back to your normal WordPress site. Now let’s go back to our Dashboard.Sync Dashboard ButtonNow we go to our top. We have the MainWP Header menu. Going from left to right, we have the Sync Dashboard with Child Sites button. This button allows your Dashboard to gather fresh data from your Child sites. Your Dashboard will automatically try to sync with the Child sites once a day, but you can force it to sync by pressing this button.I highly recommend syncing when you first log in and before updating plugins, themes, or searching for pages or posts. Just press the button, and you’ll see it’s reaching out to your Child sites and gathering all the information from those Child sites. Once it’s gathered all the information, it’ll close itself up and you’ll have all updated information on all your pages.Add New ButtonThe next button is the Add New button. It uses a drop-down menu to jump to the correct MainWP section depending on what you want to do. You can add a new website, add a new post, add a new page, add a new plugin, a theme, or a user.Screen OptionsAny time you see this cog-looking button, that’s your Screen Options. That means you can make selections to show more or less of a page. It can be different for each page, and not all pages have them.If we do a quick jump over to the Updates page, you’ll see it does not have the screen options button—that means there are no screen options for this page. Let’s go back to Overview. This gives you an idea what screen options look like: you can hide the Update Everything button if you don’t want to deal with that, move your widgets around from one or two columns, or even add or remove certain widgets that you don’t want to see.Quick Site ShortcutsNext up is your Quick Site Shortcuts. This allows you to jump to specific sections for each Child site. You’ll get a list of your Child sites, and then you can just press and jump to Overview or Updates for each individual Child site.Help and CommunityThe circle lifebuoy icon opens the Knowledge Base documentation for the page you are on, so if you have any questions you can just jump right in there. To the right of that is the MainWP Community button, which takes you directly to a community of fellow users.Account and Dashboard UpdatesThe last button in the standard menu brings you to your MainWP account. If you click that, you go to MainWP.com My Account.At times, you’ll see a red exclamation point in your header. This shows you there’s a non-MainWP update available for your Dashboard site and allows you to jump back into your normal WordPress Updates page to perform these updates. If you click that, we’ll see what updates are available for this site. We can see we have a plugin update, so we’ll select that and update the plugin. Once that is updated, we’re able to go back to our MainWP Dashboard, and you’ll see that red exclamation point is no longer there!And that is MainWP Navigation. Again, I’m Dennis, and I’ll see you in the next video.