Yet another feature in WordPress that's highly dependent on your theme is the Customizer module. If you still have the welcome box enabled in your Dashboard's screen settings, you can access this module by clicking on the big Customize Your Site button, as shown in the following screenshot:
Another way of accessing this module is by visiting http://yoursite.com/wp-admin
/customize.php. This is what you'll see (provided you're working with the default theme):
By going through the individual tabs on the left, you can adjust various aspects of your site—some that we've already talked about in this chapter, as well as some that are completely new. We're going to look through them here. The customizations that are available in most themes are as follows:
- Site Identity
- Colors
- Header Media
- Menus
- Widgets
- Homepage Settings / Static Front Page
- Additional CSS
The best thing about this module is that it provides a live preview, which makes editing the basic aspects of your design much quicker. When you're done, you can click on either the X button or the Save & Publish button that are visible in the top-left corner.
Before we get into the individual sections of the Customizer, let's have a glance at those curious-looking pencil icons in various parts of the interface. You can see an example in the following screenshot:
In a nutshell, those are shortcut icons. Meaning, they get displayed next to specific interface elements that can be edited within the Customizer. So, instead of having to search for a given customization in the left sidebar, you can simply click on the shortcut icon corresponding to it, and you will be immediately taken to the correct options panel. For example, if you click on the site's title, you will be taken to the exact section where you can edit it, as shown in the following screenshot:
We'll explore the options one by one as we go through the Customizer.