With our recent upgrade to WordPress 3.1, members will notice a new menu strip across the top of all Tripawds blogs once logged in. This in the new Admin Bar, not to be confused with the Admin Queue available to Forum moderators, or the Tripawds blog ring links.

This topic will address primary functionality of the new Admin Bar. Please reply with any questions.

• The Admin Bar will identify the currently logged in user by name and avatar. Your User Name menu will provide links to log out, edit your Tripawds User Profile, or visit the dashboard of your primary site. NOTE: Your Tripawds User Profile is different from your Forum Member Profile.
• The My Sites menu will provide a links to all blogs of which you are a member. Each site will have sub menu options depending your user level for that blog.
• If you are an author or administrator of the Tripawds Blog you are viewing, you can use the Add New menu to directly visit the new page or post editor in your dashboard.
• Tripawds Bloggers can also directly visit their dashboard's comment moderation page using the Comments link available when viewing their blog.
• The Appearance menu is also available to bloggers when viewing their own site, for changing the site's theme, sidebar widgets, or custom menus.
• The Shortlink menu will be available on any blogs of which you are a member and will provide a short WordPress url that you can copy and share via email and twitter, or on other social networking sites.
• The Search function available in the bar will search only the blog you are currently viewing. Use the Tripawds Site Search page to search all Tripawds Blogs, or review these tips for searching Wordpress blogs.

NOTE: As a point of clarification, all Tripawds users are members of Jerry's Tripawds News Blog, home of these discussion forums, in addition to any blog they created upon registration. Visiting your Tripawds Dashboard will allow you to edit your profile and upload a user avatar, but no post/page/media editing tabs will be available. The new My Sites menu should now make it easier to navigate to your blog dashboard for writing posts/pages and adding photos.

Thank the Wordpress developers for that!

And for the record, if any members do not like the new Admin Bar function, it can always be removed by unchecking its options in your User Profile.