As we have explained in this article, there are lots of great things about choosing WordPress for managing and growing a digital presence. One of these is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, and rearrange the layout of your website with no web coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, delete, and reconfigure content in your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on the site) 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:
- index of pages
- site categories
- post archives
- menus that display only the pages you choose
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- comments
- advertising banners
- testimonials
- surveys
- RSS feed content
- subscription form
- product catalog images
- social media buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, see this article:
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
Widgets – The Basics
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, let’s review some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be found inside the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide multiple widget sections)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your 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 screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active.
In addition, your Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout of your widget-enabled areas with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site’s sidebar menu in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget section …
Let’s now rearrange the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the elements around …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar menu …
This immediately changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the support graphic banner (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your sidebar navigation area is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer a number of settings that allow you to further customize things. This includes hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/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 settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no configurable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizing options)
Widget Previews
Depending upon which WP theme you have installed, you’re also able to customize and manage your widgets without making actual 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 the widget content will appear before publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the back-end.
You can do many modifications and adjustments to the widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and everything is done in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will then be instantly updated and reflected to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved the changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section one of this series of tutorials on how to use Widgets.
To view Part 2, click here:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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