WordPress Glossary

Codex

This is the series of articles that show users how to use WordPress. WordPress users contribute documentation to the codex voluntarily. Website resources: https://codex.wordpress.org/

Front end of Website

This is what your visitors see and interact with when they come to your website. It is the domain name: www.digitalstart.ie.

Backend of Website

The back end is the area that authorized users can sign into to add, remove and modify content on the website. This may also be referred to as “WordPress”, “admin” or “the administration area”.

Dashboard

In WordPress, this is the main administration screen for a website/blog or for a network of sites. It summarizes information about the site or network.

Administration

This provides access the control features of your wordpress installation. Each administration screen is presented in sections, the toolbar and header, the main navigation, the work area and the footer area of the site.

Menus

These are lists of links to pages and posts that appear on wordpress sites.

Sidebar

This is a vertical column provided by a theme for displaying information other than the main content of the web page.

Toolbar

This is an area of the screen just above that site that lists useful information screen links such as add a new post or edit your profile.

Posts and Pages

In general, pages are similar to posts in that they both have titles and content. In WordPress, you can put content on your site as either a “post” or a “page”. When you’re writing a regular blog entry, you write a post.

Post

An article/photo/video or anything you publish thats shows up in a stream. They are organized by categories and tags, by the publishing date and time and by the author or user. They are organized based on parent/child relationships.

Page

For example you can create a page as a parent and then create a submenu and use it a child. Posts, in a default setup, appear in reverse chronological order on your website/blog’s home page. In contrast, pages are generally for non-chronological, hierarchical content: Pages like “About” or “Contact” would be common examples. “Copyright“, “Disclosure“, “Legal Information” are others.

You can use Pages to organize and manage the structure of your website content. A page is often used to present static information about yourself. The Home, About and Contact Us/Me are good examples. They are typically timeless in nature and live outside of your website/blog. Pages can be organized into pages and subpages.

Post Status

This describes whether a post is published (viewable by everyone), a draft (a saved, but unpublished, post viewable by anyone with proper user level), or private (published, but viewable only to WordPress users at Administrator level).

Drafts

These are posts which are saved but not yet published. A draft post can only edited through the Administration panel.

Publicize

his is a feature on wordpress.com, when enabled, automatically shares your posts with your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin profiles.

Media

These are files uploaded to your media library. This includes images, pdf files, text documents, videos and audio files.

Blog

A blog is an online journal, diary or serial published by a person or group of people.
Blogging is the act of writing in one’s blog. To blog something is to write about something in one’s blog.  This sometimes involves linking to something the author finds interesting on the web.

Category

This is used to group posts of similar content together to aid navigation of a website.

Tag

A keyword which describes all or part of a post.

Comments

Comments are a feature of blogs/websites which allow readers to respond to posts.

Content

This consists of text, images or other information shared in posts. This is separate from the structural design/presentation of a website, which provides a framework into which content is inserted.

Gallery

This is specifically an exposition of images attached/uploaded to a post.

JPEG

A file format used for images.

Header/Featured Image/Banner

This is a wide picture that appears at the top of a wordpress website.

Content Management System

(CMS) This is software for facilitating the maintenance of content but not design on a website or blog.

Database

In computing terms, this is software used to manage information in an organised fashion. 

WordPress uses  or Maria DB relational databases management system for storing and retrieving the content of your website/blog such as comments and posts etc.

Default Theme

Every installation of wordpress has a default theme.

Plug in

This is a group of php functions that extend the functionality and features of your website/blog.

Domain Name

This is a name used for identification purposes on the internet. In WordPress, it usually identifies a server where wordpress is installed.

Footer

This is a horizontal area provided by a theme for displaying information other than the main content of the webpage.

Footer areas are usually contain widgets that an administrator/user of the site can customize at the bottom of the homepage., includes information such as copyright notices, the theme, and hosting information.

Widgets

This is a self -contained area of a web page that performs a specific function. For example, you can use it to display your twitter/facebook or instagram feed.

Tagline

A tagline is a catchy phrase that describes the character or the attributes of the blog/website in a brief, concise manner. Think of it as the slogan, or catchline for a blog.

Link/hyperlink

This is a word or group of words that, when clicked on, take you to another website, web page, or even an image.

Permalink

A unique URL, or site address, for a specific page or post on your site.

HTML

This stands for hypertext markup language. It is the standard language with which all web pages are built.

CSS

CSS stands for “Cascading Style Sheets.” CSS is a language that’s used to control the layout and appearance of websites.