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How to Add a Notepad to Your WordPress Dashboard

Have you ever wanted to add a notepad to your WordPress dashboard?

A notepad is the best way to make a quick note in the admin area. You might even write notes for other authors, editors, and anyone else who has access to the WordPress dashboard.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add a notepad to the WordPress admin area.

How to Add a Notepad to Your WordPress Dashboard

Why Add a Notepad on Your WordPress Dashboard?

If you manage a multi-author WordPress blog, there are plenty of ways to improve the editorial workflow but clear communication with your other authors is crucial.

You need somewhere to share information, list your goals, plan content, generate blog post ideas, post instructions, and more.

There are plenty of online tools that you can use to share notes with your team. You could use Slack, OneNote, Evernote, free Google tools such as Google Drive, or even email.

However, the notes from those services won’t show up in the WordPress admin area, which is the one place everyone in your team goes to do their work.

The dashboard is the first thing everyone sees when they log into their WordPress account, so it’s the best place to put important information. With that being said, let’s see how you can add a notepad to your WordPress dashboard.

How to Add a Notepad to Your WordPress Dashboard

The easiest way to add notes to the WordPress dashboard is by using WP Dashboard Notes. This free plugin allows you to create as many public and private notes as you want, and use different colors to highlight the most important information.

Anyone who is logged into your WordPress website can use the notepad plugin including Authors and Contributors, so it’s also a great choice if you allow users to submit posts on your WordPress site.

An example of a note in the WordPress dashboard

The first thing you need to do is install and activate WP Dashboard Notes. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin works out of the box and there are no settings for you to configure.

Simply go to your site’s dashboard by clicking on Dashboard in the left-hand menu and you’ll see a new ‘Add note’ item in the toolbar.

How to add a notepad to the WordPress dashboard

To get started, go ahead and click on ‘Add note.’

Then, scroll to the bottom of the dashboard and you’ll see a ‘New note’ ready for you to customize. To add a title, hover your mouse over the ‘New Note’ text and click on the pencil icon when it appears.

Adding a new note to the WordPress admin area

You can now type in the new title.

You’ll also notice there are some icons at the bottom of the note. The first controls who can see the note, and it’s set to ‘all users’ by default.

How to add a note to WordPress for all users

If you want to make the note private, then click on the icon so it shows a single figure only.

Private notes are ideal for creating a blog post checklist, recording your references, or simply jotting down ideas without cluttering up anyone else’s dashboard.

Adding private notes to the WordPress admin dashboard

The second icon is the color palette, which changes the note’s background color.

Bright colors can make your most important notes stand out so that team members pay attention to them. For less urgent notes, you might use a plain white background just like the built-in dashboard widgets.

For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to choose the perfect color scheme.

The Color Palette Icon Sets the Background Color

By default, your note will be displayed as a list, which is perfect for jotting down tasks and quick reminders.

If you prefer, then you can switch to a plain note style by clicking on the ‘Convert…’ icon.

How to convert a list note into a plain note

If you’ve already added a bullet point list, then these will stay in the list format.

Any text you type after clicking on the ‘Note’ icon will be added as plain text, as you can see in the following image.

How to add a notepad to the WordPress admin area

The next icon is ‘+,’ which creates a new note in your WordPress blog.

In this way, you can add multiple notes to the dashboard without having to click on the ‘New note’ button in the toolbar.

The + Icon Creates a New Note

The final icon is the trash can, which will delete the note without asking for confirmation.

You can’t get the note back, so think carefully before clicking on this icon.

The Trash Icon Deletes a Note Permanently

You’ve probably noticed that all new notes are created at the bottom of the admin area. Depending on how you’ve customized the WordPress admin dashboard, users may need to scroll to see these notes.

This isn’t ideal, as other authors, guest bloggers, and team members may miss important notes. For that reason, you may want to move notes around the dashboard using drag and drop. Another option is to use the ‘up’ and ‘down’ arrows next to each note’s title.

The Arrow Icons Move Your Note Up and Down the Dashboard

If you don’t see these arrows, then try refreshing the page.

You’ll typically want to place the most important notes at the top of the dashboard, and less important ones at the bottom where they won’t clutter your view of the other widgets.

You can also collapse a note to show only its title, by clicking the triangle icon.

The Triangle Icon Just Displays the Note Title

The note now takes up much less space so users can quickly scan multiple notes and decide which ones they want to look at.

To expand a note, simply click on the same triangle icon.

Rolled Up Notes Use Less Screen Space

You’ll notice that your notes don’t have a Save or Publish button. This is because they’re saved automatically, although you can also save them manually by pressing the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard.

Learn More Ways to Customize Your WordPress Admin

Besides adding notepads, here are other ways you can customize your WordPress admin area:

We hope this article helped you add a notepad to your WordPress dashboard. Next, you may want to learn how to create automated workflows in WordPress or see our expert pick of the best contact form plugins for WordPress.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

9 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
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  2. kzain

    One quick question though: is there a way to restrict permissions, so other editors or contributors can’t delete notes created by someone else? Ideally, only admins should have the ability to edit and delete notes. This would be perfect for keeping everyone on the same page and avoiding accidental deletions.

    • WPBeginner Support

      Not at the moment.

      Admin

  3. Jiří Vaněk

    I have been searching for something to create ToDo lists within the WordPress admin for a while. For a multi-user website, tools like Google Docs or note-taking apps like OneNote are not very practical. It’s great that they are online and shared, but unfortunately, they are not suitable for multiple users. I immediately tested this plugin on a demo site, and so far, it completely meets my expectations. Not only as a note-taking blog but also as a ToDo list where completed tasks can be checked off as done. It looks great. Thanks for the tip because it seems like it will finally solve the problems with creating and managing task notes.

  4. Ben

    This is nice, but is there a way to make sure that other editors or contributors can’t delete other people’s notes? I noticed other editors can edit and even delete other people’s notes. Those options should only be available to the Admin.

    • WPBeginner Support

      That is not an option with the plugin at the moment but if you let the plugin’s developer know they should be able to set that up in the future :)

      Admin

  5. Glam

    Hey, it appears that the editorial staff did NOT check to see that this plugin has not been updated in over a year and is not tested with the version of Wordpress as of February 20,2023.

    Your readers trust you so please check that your info is current before reusing old blog post info.

    Thank you.

  6. Benny V Peterson

    Hey Wpbeginner, did you develop this plug-in ⁉️

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