Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the menus, submenus, options, and plugins in your WordPress admin area? As a site owner, you may not need access to everything, and your users likely need even less.
Cleaning up the admin panel to only show essential options helps avoid choice paralysis and confusion. With a streamlined dashboard, your users and clients can stay focused on their core tasks.
In this 2023 expert guide, I‘ll show you how to hide unnecessary items from the WordPress admin area using the Adminimize plugin.
Why Hide Menus in WordPress Admin?
Here are a few key reasons to clean up your WordPress dashboard:
Avoid confusion: Too many options, menus, and settings can confuse users and make it harder to find what they need.
Improve security: Some menus give access to sensitive areas like plugin/theme editors. Hiding these reduces risks.
Enforce user roles: Show authors or editors only the options they require based on their role.
Focus users: Removing unused menus keeps your team focused on core tasks instead of getting distracted.
Video Guide
Here‘s a quick video showing how Adminimize allows you to hide dashboard items from different user roles:
Next, let‘s go through the step-by-step process to streamline your WordPress admin area.
Installing and Activating Adminimize
Adminimize is a free WordPress plugin that allows granular control over the admin menu. You can:
- Hide/show any menu item
- Set role-based menu access
- Change menu labels, icons, order and more
To get started:
- Go to Plugins > Add New
- Search for "Adminimize"
- Install and activate the plugin
Upon activation, you‘ll find the Adminimize settings page under the Settings admin menu.
Hiding a Menu from Specific User Roles
For example, let‘s hide the Media menu from all roles except Administrators:
- Go to Settings > Adminimize
- Expand the Media menu
- Change Extra capability to Administrator
- Save your changes
Now, only Admins will see the Media menu. Other users will get an access denied message if they try to access it directly.
You can hide any menu items for specific user roles this way. Try removing menus authors or editors don‘t need.
Rearranging Menus and Changing Labels
Beyond hiding menus, Adminimize allows you to:
- Rename any menu item
- Drag and drop to rearrange menus
- Change menu URLs or icons
- Set custom restrictions for plugin settings pages
Take some time to tailor your admin menus exactly how you want them. Reduce clutter, enforce restrictions, and streamline navigation.
Your users will thank you for the cleaner, less confusing dashboard!
I hope this 2023 guide helps you hide unnecessary items for different user roles in WordPress. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
