As discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of choosing WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the site’s layout with no web coding skills and knowledge required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, delete, and control content in your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you are using) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- website page list
- blog post categories
- archives
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- recent comments from users
- advertisements
- testimonials
- survey results
- RSS feed content
- customers login section
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we start configuring and using widgets, let’s make sure that you understand some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar area, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also be found in the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-ready sections)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel 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 all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active on your site.
In addition, your Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag & Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout of your website’s widgetized layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site’s sidebar section in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
Let’s now change these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar menu …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the support banner (2) is now placed above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar navigation section is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar area …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the widget’s settings …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets provide users with little to no customizable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customization)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending upon the WordPress theme you are using, you’re also able to preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your site.
Widget management 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 before publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do several things in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your new configuration to your site visitors.
Since the theme you choose can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to begin configuring a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial about how to use WordPress widgets.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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