As we explain in this post, there are so many great things about using WordPress to build, manage and grow your web site. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your website’s functionality, and rearrange your site’s layout without programming skills or knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, delete, and reorganize content from your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- page lists
- content categories
- blog post archive
- custom menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- post comments
- image banners
- quotations
- polls & surveys
- RSS content
- shopping cart forms
- video thumbnails
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, let’s explain some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also be used below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that you currently have available.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active and can be used for their purpose.
Your Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets using simple drag & drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout of your website’s widgetized sections using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget area …
If we rearrange the order of the above widgets in the Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar area, and the support banner (2) is now located above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove a widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. 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 sizes 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, click Delete to 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 may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configuration options)
Preview Widgets
Depending on which theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live 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 valuable 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 (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize section)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do many edits and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
As soon as the changes have been saved, the new configuration will automatically show on your site.
Since the theme you choose can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series about using Widgets.
Click here to view the rest of this tutorial:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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