As we discuss in this post, there are loads of benefits in choosing the WordPress CMS platform for building and growing your business online. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, or reconfigure the site’s layout without web coding skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily add, remove, and reconfigure various types of content from your site’s sidebar (or 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 like:
- page lists
- post categories
- archives
- custom menus
- links to resources
- your most popular posts
- recent comments
- clickable images
- testimonials
- surveys
- RSS content
- subscriber form
- video
- social media buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial series you will learn how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s explain some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be used below or above the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide multiple widget areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that you currently have available.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see your “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 the sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout and order of your website’s widget-ready sections by with drag & drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
If we take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site in exactly the same order as they are arranged in the active widget screen …
Let’s now change the order the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of these items around …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation area, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar Area
Removing widgets from your sidebar menu is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar navigation section. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete the 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 give you little to no customization)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending upon the WordPress theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before committing anything to your website or blog.
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 prior to publishing any changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize feature)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do plenty of edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved the changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your latest changes to your site visitors.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you work 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 start configuring various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
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