I am sure when you logged into your WordPress dashboard, you noticed the menu over to the left. There is a lot of different options, especially when you hover over a menu item. It can be a little overwhelming, but this guide walks you through each menu item. Each area will be covered separately, this guide merely gives a general overview of that "what, where, and how" questions."
In fact, your dashboard may not have all of these options depending on the role your account was assigned to. This example is an administrator's view of the dashboard navigation menu. The WordPress Roles guide will have more information [will be linked when written].
Generally you only need to use a few of these features when managing your site, such as Updates, Posts, Media, Pages, and Comments (if you're allowing them.)
Dashboard is where you land when you login. Home is the main dashboard page. WordPress is an ever evolving piece of software and needs to be updated - along with plugins you may use. The Updates link keeps you up to date on what needs to be updated, even providing a notification count of how many outstanding updates there are. Updates are covered in the WordPress Plugins guide. [linked when written]
Posts is for managing your blog posts. WordPress at heart is a blogging platform that has grown into a reliable content management system overall. The Posts page will list all posts on your website, and Add New allows you to create a new blog post (remember, blog posts can be news updates, newsletters, however you want to name them.) Categories allows you to organize your posts by different taxonomies. Tags are a different way to organize and group your posts. Read more on posts in the WordPress Posts chapter [link when written]
Media contains a library of all your uploads used in posts, pages, or anything you need to upload. You can also add items to your media library through the Add New link. You can upload image files, videos, text files, audio files, file archives, even Microsoft Office (and OpenOffice) documents. The full file type list is available within the WordPress Media Library chapter [linked when written].
Links allows you to create links and categorize them. As of WordPress 3.5 the links manager has been removed and is a separate plugin. Most often these links were used in a theme widget to list other websites, such as related blogs (a blogroll). This guide will not cover the links feature, if you are interested in more information check out the plugin replacement Link Manager.
Pages are the content on your website. When you first open the pages section you will be provided with a list of all pages within your website, much like the posts section. Add New adds a new page into the system. Content (page) management in WordPress is very simplistic, more details on pages in the WordPress Pages chapter. [linked when written].
Comments can be moderated from this area of the dashboard. WordPress allows you to enable comments on blog posts and pages. Comments, moderation, and spam prevention are covered in the WordPress Comments chapter. [linked when written]
The Appearance section allows you to modify the look and feel of your website. The amount options depends on how robust the current WordPress theme is. Widgets are different items that can be dragged and dropped into certain areas of your theme and configured. Menus allow you to create different menus based off of content created in your WordPress site. If your theme supports a header area, Header allows you to upload a custom image to change it; same with Background, you can change the style of the theme's background. Some themes even have their own customizable options. The Editor allows you to make changes to the theme files (not recommended unless you have experience in HTML, CSS, and minor PHP.) Customizing and more theme information can be found in the WordPress Themes chapter. [linked when written]
Plugins allow you to extend the features of your WordPress site. WordPress has a built in installer, updater, and management system. Add New allows you to search and browse plugins for your website and install them. Editor allows you to edit plugin files (not recommended under any circumstances.) The WordPress Plugins chapter covers more on how to use plugins. [linked when written.]
Users allows you to manage user accounts that are on your website. There is a site setting allowing visitors to register, otherwise accounts are manually added to the website via Add New. WordPress divides access levels into roles - subscriber, contributor, author, editor, administrator. You Profile allows you to modify account information and other details. More details on user roles and profile can be found in the WordPress Users chapter [linked when written.]
Tools is a mostly unused section. Import & Export allows you to migrate data from other blogging platforms into WordPress, or export your data from WordPress to migrate or backup. Some plugins will add themselves under the Tools menu. [Possible doc on importing into WordPress, and backing up WordPress]
Settings allows you to change how your WordPress site works, and some plugins will include their options menu here. Visit the WordPress Settings chapter for details on each settings page [linked when written]