As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and change the layout of your site without web coding skills required.

WordPress allows you to easily insert, remove, and control various types of content from your site’s sidebar section (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) 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 theme you have installed) like:

• site pages
• post categories
• blog post archive
• custom page menus
• links to resources
• links to your recent posts
• user comments
• clickable ad banners
• quotations
• survey questions & results
• RSS content excerpts
• newsletter subscription form
• images
• social media buttons
• display widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
• administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)

(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)

To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:

• An Overview Of Widgets

In this step-by-step tutorial series we teach you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.

How To Use WordPress Widgets

What You Need To Know First

Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of using widgets:

Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas

Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also be found in the content area …

(Many themes provide a number of widget areas)

These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …

(Widget Areas)

The Widgets Screen

The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.

On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …

(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag & drop)

Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets panel.

Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become activated for use.

In addition, your Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.

Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop

You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets with drag and drop in the Widgets area …

(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag & drop)

You can also easily reconfigure the layout of your website’s widget-enabled areas using drag-and-drop.

For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:

1. A newsletter opt-in form,
2. A contact support banner, and
3. A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …

(Widgets control how certain features appear on your WordPress site)

Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as they have been arranged in the backend widget section …

Let’s now change these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag and drop …

(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)

The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …

As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the order of items in your sidebar.

Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can improve visitor experience.

Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ image button (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …

(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)

Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar

Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar menu is very easy.

For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar area …

(Search widget)

To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …

(Deleting WordPress widgets)

Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …

(Removing widgets)

Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reactivate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.

Widget Settings

Most widgets can be customized further. This includes 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.

Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the widget’s settings …

(Toggle to 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 settings …

(Widget settings)

Some widgets offer little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …

(Some widgets provide users with little to no configuration options)

Widget Customizer Section

Depending upon which WP theme you have installed, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything live to your website.

The ability to manage widgets inside the WordPress dashboard is a valuable 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 prior to publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making errors), or manage your 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 …

(Toolbar Customize Link)

This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.

You can do several things to the widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and it’s all done in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on your site to visitors.

(Widget management – work in preview mode)

Once you have saved your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.

Since the theme you choose affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.

Also, remember to use the Customizer feature 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 begin configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.

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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials.

To continue reading, click this link:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Site – Part 2

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