Add a custom widget to the dashboard to display announcements, help or other information users will see at login.

Piotr Po

Better Contextual Help

Jo Landers

<p>Do you want to add site announcements, contributor guidelines or help to the WordPress dashboard?</p>
<p>This plugin adds a widget with custom text to the dashboard. Great for Admin-only announcements or making a short README text block for your site contributors. You can display basic help or include links to more detailed information. The <a href="http://www.jolanders.com/wordpress_plugins.php?plugin=custom-dashboard-help" title="premium version" rel="nofollow ugc">premium version</a> has more options and allows you to disable/hide any or all default dashboard widgets.</p>
<p><strong>Important!</strong> If you’re upgrading from Version 1.0, make sure you follow the correct installation procedure.</p>
<h4>Suggested Use</h4>
<ul>
<li>Display general site announcements</li>
<li>Add guidelines for content, category usage, or image sizes that fit the theme</li>
<li>Tell contributors when they should use pages, posts, or custom write panels</li>
<li>Provide links to more detailed “contributor help” pages or posts</li>
</ul>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Includes the same WYSIWYG editor your posts do, so you can format your widget content more easily.</li>
<li>Lightweight – For most users, only the widget display and help functions (less than 100 lines of code) are loaded. Management functions are only loaded if the user can manage the plugin.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Premium Version</h4>
<ul>
<li>Selectively disable any or all default WordPress dashboard widgets, for all users (the widget list occasionally changes; the plugin can disable all default widgets for WP v. 3.1 to 3.8.2)</li>
<li>Keep the widget visible, open, and above other widgets on the dashboard, regardless of user settings.</li>
<li>Apply custom colors to the widget title bar to make it stand out.</li>
<li>Restrict access to this plugin’s settings to site administrators, even if other roles can manage plugins.</li>
</ul>


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