What is: Toolbar

22 Jul What is: Toolbar

Many software programs, not just WordPress, use a toolbar in order to improve the user experience. In general, a toolbar is a row of clickable icons arranged either horizontally or vertically. These icons, when clicked, perform a specific function. Toolbars are generally used to provide one-click access to the most commonly used functions.

In WordPress specifically, toolbars are always arranged horizontally at the top of the screen or window. If you access the administration screen for your WordPress site, you’ll see a black stripe across the top of the screen with various clickable options like “+ New”. This is a toolbar. Which tools are displayed in the toolbar change based on your user role, which defines what you can do.

Starting at the lefthand side of the toolbar, you’ll see the WordPress logo (a stylized “W”). If you click this, it’ll take you to a screen with information about your current version of WordPress and some other relevant information.

Just to the right of the WordPress logo, you’ll see a little icon of a house and the name of your website.

Note: If you don’t see a toolbar, this means that it has been disabled. You can choose whether to display or disable the toolbar by clicking on “Users” in the left-hand column of your screen and then clicking on “Name.” There is an option that says “Show Toolbar when viewing site.” Remove the blue checkmark from the box in order to disable it.

You can add clickable icons to the toolbar on your WordPress administration page via plugins. Certain themes as well also add clickable icons to the toolbar.

If you allow your mouse to hover over a toolbar icon, additional information and/or options will be revealed.