Description
The Quick-Launch Dashboard Dock adds a persistent, space-efficient panel to the bottom of your WordPress admin screen. Instead of digging through nested menus or memorising URLs, you pin the pages you visit most — settings screens, post types, tools, or external links — and access them with a single click.
How it works
Once activated, a slim dock appears at the bottom of every admin page. Click the toggle bar to expand or collapse it — the dock stays in your preferred state across page loads. Click any pinned item to navigate instantly. The currently active page is highlighted in blue so you always know where you are. Press Ctrl+K (Windows) or Cmd+K (Mac) to open the search overlay, type to filter, and use arrow keys plus Enter to jump directly to a bookmark.
Key features
- One-click pinning — Click the “Pin Page” button in the WordPress Admin Bar to save the current screen with its title and URL.
- Custom / external links — Right-click any blank area in the dock and choose “Add custom link” to bookmark any URL with a custom title. All links open in a new tab.
- Duplicate prevention — Pinning a page that is already in your dock shows an “Already pinned!” alert. No duplicate bookmarks.
- Right-click to remove — Right-click any bookmark in the dock and choose “Remove bookmark” to delete it instantly.
- Active page highlight — The bookmark matching your current admin page is highlighted with a blue border so you can see at a glance where you are.
- Search overlay — Press
Ctrl+K/Cmd+Kto open a keyboard-navigable search modal. Filter as you type and hit Enter to go. - Collapsible — Toggle the dock open or closed. Your preference is remembered across page loads via localStorage.
- Zero bloat — jQuery is used only for the pin and delete interactions (already loaded by WordPress); the rest is vanilla JavaScript. The dock stays out of your way until you need it.
- User-specific — Each user’s bookmarks are stored in their own user meta. No shared state, no database overhead.
- Fully translatable — All static text uses
esc_html__()with a proper text domain.
Screenshots
Installation
- Download the plugin ZIP file and go to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin in your WordPress admin.
- Click Choose File, select
quick-launch-dashboard-dock.zip, and click Install Now. - After installation, click Activate Plugin.
- Navigate to any admin page. The dock appears at the bottom of the screen. Click the “Pin Page” button in the top Admin Bar to start adding bookmarks.
FAQ
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Who can see and use the dock?
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Only the logged-in user who created the bookmarks. Each user’s pins are stored in their own user meta and are private to them.
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How do I add a custom or external link?
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Right-click any blank area inside the dock and select “Add custom link”. Enter a title and URL, then click Save. The link will appear in your dock and open in a new tab when clicked.
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How do I remove a bookmark?
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Right-click any bookmark in the dock and select “Remove bookmark” from the context menu. The bookmark is deleted immediately and the dock refreshes.
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Does the dock work on every admin screen?
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Yes. It is injected into the
admin_footerhook, so it appears on all WordPress admin pages out of the box. -
What happens if I try to pin a page that is already bookmarked?
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The plugin detects duplicates instantly — both in the browser (before the request is sent) and on the server. You will see a clear “Already pinned!” message, and no duplicate entry is created.
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Is the plugin translation-ready?
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Yes. All user-facing strings use
esc_html__()with the text domainquick-launch-dashboard-dock. You can translate the plugin using.po/.mofiles. -
Does it work with multisite?
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Yes. Bookmarks are stored per user per site, just like any other user meta.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Quick-Launch Dashboard Dock” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Quick-Launch Dashboard Dock” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release.
- Collapsible dashboard dock pinned to the bottom of the admin screen.
- “Pin Page” button in the WordPress Admin Bar to save bookmarks with one click.
- Duplicate prevention — both client-side and server-side checks block re-pinning existing pages.
- Right-click bookmark removal with a custom context menu.
- Right-click blank dock area to add custom / external links via an inline modal.
- All dock links open in a new tab (
target="_blank"). - Active page highlight — the bookmark matching the current URL is visually distinguished.
- Keyboard-driven search overlay via
Ctrl+K/Cmd+Kwith arrow-key navigation. - Persistent collapse state via browser localStorage.
- Full sanitization pipeline using
sanitize_text_field()andesc_url_raw(). - Security nonce verification on all AJAX requests.
- Permission checks via
current_user_can( 'manage_options' ).