Preview

Preview

Preview lets you inspect how the WordPress admin experience will appear to a specific role or user after your Admin UX Cleaner (AUC) configuration is applied.

It is useful for checking your setup before handing a website over to a client or applying broader admin customizations.

Instead of repeatedly switching accounts while configuring AUC, you can use Preview to quickly review the experience for your selected audience.

Preview the WordPress admin experience for a selected role or individual user.

What You Can Preview

Preview helps you review how supported AUC customizations affect the WordPress admin experience.

Depending on your configuration, this may include changes made through:

• Menu Cleaner
• Page Locks
• Notice Cleaner
• Dashboard Cleaner
• Admin Bar Cleaner

For example, after configuring Menu Cleaner for Editors, you can preview the Editor role to check which menu items remain visible and how the navigation is organized.

Preview by Role

You can preview the admin experience for a WordPress role affected by your AUC configuration.

For example:

Administrator
Editor
Author
Contributor

Select the role you want to inspect and start the preview.

Select a WordPress role to review the AUC configuration applied to that role.

Role Preview is useful when your Audience targets an entire group of users rather than individual accounts.

For example, if AUC applies to the Editor role, previewing Editor gives you a quick way to check the general admin experience intended for those users.

Preview by User

You can also preview the experience for an individual WordPress user.

This is particularly useful when your Audience contains user-specific include or exclude rules.

Preview an individual user when your Audience configuration contains user-specific rules.

User Preview can help verify cases where two users with the same WordPress role are intentionally treated differently.

For example:

Include role: Editor
Exclude user: Senior Editor

Previewing each user can help confirm that the exclusion behaves as intended.

What to Check During Preview

Do not only check whether hidden items disappeared.

Review the admin interface from the perspective of the person who will actually use it.

Check that:

• Required menu items remain visible.
• Hidden menu items are no longer displayed.
• Renamed menu labels are clear.
• Menu ordering is easy to understand.
• Dashboard widgets are appropriate.
• Unnecessary notices are removed as expected.
• Admin Bar items are displayed correctly.
• Restricted pages behave as intended.
• Normal user workflows remain practical.

The goal is not simply to make the WordPress admin area smaller. It should remain useful for the person working in it.

Preview After Changing Audience

Audience rules determine which users receive your AUC configuration.

If you change role or user targeting, preview the affected audience again.

This is especially important when using combinations such as:

Include: Editor
Exclude: Specific User

A small Audience change can affect several AUC features at the same time.

See Audience for more information about targeting and rule priority.

Preview After Changing Menu Cleaner

After hiding, renaming, or reordering admin menu items, Preview provides a quick way to inspect the resulting navigation.

Use Preview to verify that the customized admin menu remains clear and usable.

Pay particular attention to menu items that users depend on for their everyday work.

If the interface feels confusing during Preview, simplify the configuration before adding more changes.

Preview and Page Locks

Preview can help you review a configuration that includes Page Locks, but access restrictions should receive additional testing.

For an important Page Lock, verify the behavior using an appropriate WordPress user account before deployment.

Test both:

1. Normal navigation to the page.
2. Direct access using the admin page URL.

This confirms that the final behavior matches what you intended.

Preview Is Not User Impersonation

Preview is designed to help you inspect AUC configurations.

It should not be treated as a complete replacement for logging in as the actual user.

A real WordPress user may have:

• Different capabilities.
• User-specific plugin settings.
• Different preferences.
• Access provided by third-party plugins.
• Other conditions outside AUC's control.

Because of this, Preview is best used as a fast configuration check during setup.

For important workflows, perform a final test using an appropriate WordPress user account.

A Recommended Testing Workflow

A simple workflow is:

1. Configure your Audience.
2. Make a small AUC change.
3. Save the configuration.
4. Preview the affected role or user.
5. Correct anything unexpected.
6. Continue with additional customizations.
7. Preview the completed configuration again.
8. Test important workflows with a real user account.

This approach makes configuration problems easier to identify because you are testing changes gradually instead of applying everything at once.

Before Client Handoff

Before handing a WordPress website over to a client, perform one final review.

Preview each important audience and make sure:

• Users can find the tools they need.
• Unnecessary admin elements are removed.
• Restricted areas behave correctly.
• The interface remains understandable without developer assistance.

Then test the most important workflows using an appropriate client or test account.

A clean admin interface is useful only when users can still complete their work comfortably.

Next Step

Once you have verified your core configuration with Preview, continue configuring the remaining AUC features as needed.

You can use Notice Cleaner to reduce unnecessary admin notices, Dashboard Cleaner to simplify dashboard widgets, and Admin Bar Cleaner to clean up the WordPress toolbar.