.. index:: Dashboard .. _dashboard: Dashboard ----------- After you successfully logged in to Mahara, you see your *dashboard*. This is your homepage where you can see the latest activity of you and other users on Mahara. You can customise the dashboard so that you always see the items that are most important to you. Only you can see your dashboard. Nobody else has access to it. Overview ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can change certain aspects of your dashboard, namely the :ref:`user-specific information `, but a lot of what you see is static to allow you to quickly access other parts of Mahara. .. figure:: /images/dashboard_full.* :alt: the full dashboard Your homepage is your dashbaord from which you can access a number of areas in Mahara conveniently. #. **General navigation bar**: Move from one area of Mahara to the next. #. **Settings**: This link gives you access to your :ref:`account settings and notifications `. #. **Inbox**: Go to your Mahara inbox to check for new messages. When you have unread messages, the counter displays the number of unread messages. #. **Logout**: Link to log out of your current session. #. **User search**: Search for users who have an account to view their portfolio pages / collections. #. **Personal information**: In this box a number of constant and dynamic information is displayed: * Your name is linked to your profile page. * Your profile picture is linked to your profile page. * If you are a member of any groups, they are displayed here. * Pending friend requests are displayed. * If you tagged artefacts or pages with the tag "portfolio", a link to them is placed here. #. **Online users**: If this sidebar block is enabled, you see all users who have been logged in during the last 10 minutes. #. **Quick links**: These :ref:`quick links ` take you to certain areas of Mahara fast. #. **User-specific information**: You can customise :ref:`this area ` on your dashboard to put blocks there that you want to see every time you log in. .. index:: pair: Quick links; Dashboard .. _dashboard_quick_links: Quick links ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you log in to Mahara for the first time, you see three boxes with quick links: * **Create and Collect**: Develop your portfolio * **Organise**: Showcase your portfolio * **Share and Network**: Connect with friends and collaborate in groups .. figure:: /images/dashboard_boxes.* :alt: Dashboard boxes Mahara information With the help of these quick links you can reach the different parts of your portfolio directly from your dashboard. .. note:: If you removed these boxes from your dashbaord but want to get them back at a later point, you can re-active them under *Settings -> Show information about Mahara on the home page*. .. index:: pair: Dashboard; Blocks .. _user_specific_information: User-specific information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The default dashboard includes the following blocks: * Latest Pages * My Pages * Recent Activity * Topics I'm Following These areas are filled with content once you start using Mahara and create pages, receive messages from other users, have access to others' portfolio pages and use the forums for discussions. You can customize this area to your liking by editing your dashboard in *Portfolio* -> click the *Edit* button |edit| next to the dashboard page -> change the *blocks* like you would change them on any page in Mahara. .. seealso:: Refer to the :ref:`page editor ` for more information on adding and removing blocks from a page. .. |edit| image:: /images/buttons/edit.*