Dashboard Launch

I’m usually not this lame at installations, especially the simple stuff. But I cannot figure out how to actually launch the Dashboard (and Login) for my locally (my computer) hosted blog and for a similar one on my Host (GoDaddy) site. I’ve looked throughout the documentation and must be missing it, but can only find references as to what functionality is “when you’ve logged in to Dashboard” etc.
Could someone tell me what I’m missing. Thanks in advance.