As we explain in this post, there are so many great benefits in choosing the WordPress CMS platform to build, manage and grow your digital presence. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and rearrange the layout of your site without programming skills required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, remove, and control various blocks of content in your website’s sidebar navigation section (and 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:
- page lists
- categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- your most popular posts
- comments
- clickable images
- testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS feed content
- subscriber form
- image galleries
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we teach you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Basic Concepts
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first review some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar section, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also show up inside the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately available for use on your site.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the order and layout of your website’s widget-ready areas with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If we look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget screen …
Let’s now rearrange the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some things around …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation section, and the support graphic banner (2) now sits above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout using widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing your WP 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
Most widgets provide additional settings that allow you to further configure them. 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggle to 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 give you little to no customizable options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending upon the theme you choose, you’re also able to manage and customize widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before committing anything live to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from 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 before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer screen in the backend.
You can do several edits to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest changes to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the 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 complete 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 frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials about using Widgets.
Click here to continue:
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