As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, or reconfigure the site’s layout without having code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily add, remove, and rearrange content from your site’s sidebar (or 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:
- list of pages
- categories
- blog post archive
- menus that display only the pages you select
- links to resources
- most read posts
- recent comments from users
- clickable text ads
- testimonials
- poll results
- RSS feed content
- shopping cart forms
- image galleries
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first cover some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready 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 also show up below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widget-ready sections)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag and drop)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately active and can be used for their purpose.
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 site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout and order of your widget-enabled sections by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
If we take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget screen …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping elements …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately changes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation menu, and the support banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Area
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar menu …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove your WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar navigation area. You can always reactivate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets provide various options that allow you to further configure them. 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.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no configuration options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configuration options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on which theme you choose, you can also manage and customize your widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything to your website.
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 the widget content will appear before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(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 brings you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do several edits in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and it will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly applied and reflected on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest changes to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install 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 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 configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to keep reading:
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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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