# Your first day in Content Central

Where everything lives and what to set up first: the dashboard, the menu, search, the queues where work finds you, and the five-minute setup that makes tomorrow easier.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: user · Time: 10 minute read · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/getting-started/your-first-day-in-content-central

**By the end of this page you'll know where everything lives — the dashboard, the menu, search, and the queues where work arrives for you — and you'll have set up your workspace so tomorrow starts faster.**

## You land on the Dashboard — and it starts empty

After signing in, you're on the **Dashboard**. The first time, it says exactly what to do: *Your dashboard is empty. Use "Add Widget" to get started.*

Widgets are live tiles of the things you check anyway. Click **Add Widget**, pick a **Widget Type**, and place as many as you like — drag them between the four columns to arrange, and remove one anytime from its own controls.

Worth adding on day one:

- **Approval Queue**, **Work Queue**, or **Coding Queue** — whichever kinds of work your role receives, visible at a glance
- **Recent & Favorites** — the documents you touched last, one click away
- **Search** — a search box that lives on your dashboard

*[Screenshot: New widgets stack in the first column; drag them by their handles to spread across the four columns however you like.]*

## The menu is behind the ☰ button

Click the **☰** button at the top-left and the menu slides in (it closes itself once you pick a destination). What you'll find, top to bottom:

*[Screenshot: The slide-in menu with Capture New expanded; your list of capture options depends on what your administrator enabled.]*

| Menu item | What it is |
| --- | --- |
| **Dashboard** | Back to your widgets |
| **Folder Browser** | Documents arranged in folders, like a drive you browse |
| **Capture New** | The ways to bring documents in — which options appear here (DirectScan, Electronic, Form, and others) depends on what your administrator turned on |
| **Search** | The search pages (more below) |
| **Work Areas** | The queues — where work assigned to you lives |
| **Favorites** | Documents you've starred |

Administrators see an extra **Administration** entry; if you don't see it, you're not missing anything you need today.

## Finding documents

The fastest path is always in the top bar: click the magnifier, type into the **Search…** box, press Enter.

For more control, the menu's **Search** group offers:

- **Search** — on many systems, a smart search page that asks *"What do you need to find?"* and takes plain descriptions in your own words; click **Find documents**
- **Power Search** — the precise version: exact terms, field-by-field refinements
- **Packet Search** — for finding grouped document sets, if your organization uses packets

> **NOTE:** Which search pages you see depends on your system's configuration. The top-bar magnifier always works.

## Work finds you in the queues

You don't go looking for assigned work — it arrives. Open **Work Areas** in the menu, or go to the **Queues** page, which has four tabs with live counts: **Approval**, **Work**, **Signature**, and **Coding**.

- **Approval** — documents waiting for your sign-off. Open one, review it, approve or reject (a rejection asks for your reason).
- **Coding** — scanned or captured documents waiting for you to fill in their details. Open one: the **Properties** panel on the right holds the **Catalog**, **Document Type**, and fields; the green **Commit** button files it.
- **Work** and **Signature** — task hand-offs and signature requests, when your organization uses them.

*[Screenshot: Four tabs with live counts, repeated as summary badges top-right. An empty Approval tab on day one is exactly what you should expect.]*

**What you should see:** if all your tabs read zero, that's normal on day one — counts appear as colleagues route work to you.

## Bringing documents in

**Capture New** in the menu lists your intake options. The most common on a desk with a scanner is **DirectScan** — paper straight into the system from your browser. That one has its own guide: [Scan documents with DirectScan](/content-central/capture/scan-documents-with-directscan).

## Your account menu, briefly

Your name at the top-right opens the **Account** menu: **User Profile**, **Options** (personal preferences), **Account Security**, **Downloads** (desktop tools like the DirectScan agent), and **Sign Out** live here. You'll rarely need it after day one.

## The five-minute setup

- [ ] Add the two or three widgets that match your role
- [ ] Run one search from the top bar for a document you know exists
- [ ] Open each queue tab once so you recognize them when work arrives
- [ ] Star one document you use often (that's what **Favorites** collects)

## When something you expect isn't there

A missing menu item or capture option usually means your administrator hasn't enabled it for you — not that something's broken. Ask them first. If they're stumped, contact support with: what you were trying to do, what you expected to see, and where you looked.

## What's next

- [Scan documents with DirectScan](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/scan-documents-with-directscan)
- [Change a document's type, catalog, or fields after filing](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/documents/change-a-document-after-filing)