• The Dashboard is the “workshop” of the site, used for editing existing content or adding new content.  It’s sometimes referred to as the site’s “back end”, as distinct from the “front end” which is the normal view experienced by users.
• There is a different Dashboard view for each kind of page — Genus Pages, Plant Pages, Articles, etc. collectively they make up the Dashboard, but individually have different features and capabilities.
• What is visible on the Dashboard varies according to your user category — Editors see fewer options than do Administrators. Even if you have access to a function doesn’t mean you should use it — Editors should limit themselves to their specific editorial functions.
• It’s possible to have multiple “instances” of the site open at once, in multiple browser tabs. This makes it easy to copy and paste from one Dashboard view to another, or to quickly see the results of editing without having to leave the Dashboard you are working in. To see the editing results in a different tab, you’ll have to refresh it.