How to Use WP Dashboard Notes in WordPress

Do you often forget what you worked on last, or need to send a message to another developer? Consider creating notes that you can place on your dashboard. The WP Dashboard Notes plugin can do this for you quite easily.

Simply put, this plugin allows you to create notes that are placed on the WordPress dashboard. They use the same color options that traditional Post-it notes use, and there is no limit on the number of them you can place.

You also have the option to make the notes public or private. This allows you to create personal reminders, as well as send out instructions or reminders to your staff. The plugin is quite basic, so anyone can use it regardless of skill level.

Today, I will demonstrate how to use the WP Dashboard Notes plugin to create notes in WordPress.

This tutorial is for:
WordPress 6.6.1
Plugin: WP Dashboard Notes v1.0.12

Why Create Notes In WordPress?

The entire point of leaving a note is to remind yourself or someone else about an unfinished task, upcoming event, or anything else that may require a reminder, like remembering to update your plugins.

Many users still use regular Post-it notes attached to their computer monitors. While this works, having them on your WordPress dashboard is much more convenient and has the potential of having your staff see them.

Normally, a small team would use something like Discord or Slack to communicate with one another, but this may be easier to use.

How to Use WP Dashboard Notes To Leave Notes

The WP Dashboard Notes plugin is incredibly simple to use as it just requires users to install it and create the notes they want to share. This tutorial should take most users around five minutes to complete, so let’s get right into it.

Note: As of WordPress version 6.6.1, the plugin is not compatible with multisite networks without editing the plugin’s code.

Step 1: Install WP Dashboard Notes

Let’s start by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.

Search for WP Dashboard Notes in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.

Scroll down until you find the  WP Dashboard Notes plugin and click on the “Install Now” button and activate the plugin for use.

Step 2: Create Notes

Once you have the plugin installed, you may notice that there are no new options to select. That is because the plugin is integrated directly into the dashboard. There are no settings to configure or anything like that.

Simply go to the WordPress dashboard and click on the “+Add Note” option at the top.

This will create a new dashboard widget titled New Note. Everything about this widget is customizable. First, let’s start with the name. If you hover your mouse over the widget you will see a small pencil icon next to the title, click on it.

In my case, I am just going to change it to “To-Do List” but feel free to name it anything you like. Next, you can add the information to the note. There’s nothing fancy about it, just type what you want.

When you are done, hit the Enter key and it will become a checkable box. like so:

If you do not want the to-do list, you can hover over the note and click on the Convert to a Regular Note option. This is a better option for leaving a more detailed reminder or message for a co-worker.

There is no limit to the number of items you can add to the list, so add as many as you want. You can also create multiple notes instead of just having one big one.

Step 3: Customize Appearance and Visibility

The next thing you want to focus on is setting the visibility option and coloring the notes to stand out. Let’s start with visibility.

The visibility option controls who can see the note on the dashboard. By default, every note you create is set to Everyone, which means anyone with access to the dashboard can see the note. You can change this to “Just Me” to make the note private.

You can find this option by hovering over the note and clicking on the visibility option to toggle between the two modes.

If you hover over the note one more time, you should notice that there is a color palette option. If you hover over that option, you can select a color to change the note to. You can make multiple notes that have different colors.

You may want to consider using the colors as a priority system. For example, perhaps Red notes represent very important things that need to be done ASAP. This can help staff prioritize certain things first if you create a lot of notes.

And that covers just about everything the plugin can do. The only other options are the delete icon (Trashcan) and the New Note option (+). The plugin is simple but very effective at what it does.

What Are Some Good Uses for the Plugin?

Now that you know how to use the plugin, you may be wondering about some of its best uses. Here are a few ideas:

Announcements

When working with a team, you may need to make announcements to everyone, but due to timezone differences, that may be a lot of trouble. As such, you can use the note to create general announcements.

For example, if you were planning a major update to the site, you probably want to announce that to your staff so everyone is in the same loop. Of course, this could be for anything, so don’t limit yourself.

Content Ideas

The notes are a great spot for you to store content ideas, although they should be very simple top-level ideas. For example, something like “Create a tutorial to create a subdomain” that an author will see and be able to get started.

Or it could be for creating new taxonomies, pages, or anything at all. You could also store keywords you are hoping to create content within the notes. Granted, there are better options and tools for this kind of thing, but the notes get the job done.

Reminders

Perhaps the most common use for a note is to remind yourself that there is something you need to do. Well, these notes are great for that. You can create a new note for every day and add the date as the title to keep track.

Since reminders are typically more of a personal thing, it is probably a good idea to set these kinds of messages to Private. And you can utilize a color coding system to make it clear the urgency of the reminder.

Start Creating Dashboard Notes in WordPress Today

As you can see, the WP Dashboard Notes plugin is really easy to use. You can quickly create notes that can be viewed publically on your site, or set to private with some simple customization options to choose from.

While the plugin is useful, having a proper communication channel such as Discord or Slack to stay connected with your team is more important. In fact, it should be one of the first things you set up when building a site.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful in learning how to create WordPress dashboard user notes.

Did you find the WP Dashboard Notes plugin easy to use? What kind of notes do you create?

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