As we’ve discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing software to build, manage and grow your website is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and rearrange the layout of your site without having any web programming skills.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, delete, and rearrange various blocks of content in your website’s sidebar menu (or header and footer sections too, depending on your theme) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- website page list
- content categories
- blog post archive
- menus
- links to resources
- links to recent posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to your posts
- image banners
- client testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS feed items
- newsletter registration form
- videos
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- 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 how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series you are going to learn how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
The Basics
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, it helps to first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar area, header area, and footer. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be found below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users multiple widget-ready areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag and drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reorder the layout of your widget-enabled sections using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we took a peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar area in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now change the order the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging & dropping items …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reordered in the sidebar …
As you can see, this instantly reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help 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, and the support banner (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Menu
Removing widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar menu. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the widget’s settings …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customization)
Preview Widgets
Depending upon the WP theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from within your dashboard is a great 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 you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do lots of things in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, the new configuration will automatically be added to your site.
Since the WordPress theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar navigation menu.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure a number of frequently-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.
Click on this link to read the rest of this tutorial series:
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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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