As we have discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage and grow your website or blog is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and change the layout of your site without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily insert, delete, and reconfigure various types of content in your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- website page list
- categories
- post archives
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- most read posts
- recent comments
- clickable ads
- user testimonials
- survey results
- RSS content
- shopping cart forms
- video
- social media buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
The Basics
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme, widgets can also get added below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widgetized areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag and drop)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately activated for use on your site.
In addition, the Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your WordPress site)
If you take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget section …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging & dropping items …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar navigation section is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. This can include things like hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizing options)
Widget Previews
Depending upon the WordPress theme you use, you’re also able to preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with what you have done before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from within the WP dashboard is a great feature of WordPress. You can work in preview mode inside the WordPress Theme Customizer screen (Appearance > Customize) and see how your widget content will appear prior to publishing any changes (and avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do several modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will then be instantly applied and made visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved the changes, the new updates will automatically be added to your site.
Since the theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part 1 of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
To keep reading, click this link:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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