As we discuss in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage your web presence is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site with no web coding skills required.
WordPress allows you to easily add, delete, and reorganize various types of content in your blog’s sidebar navigation section (and 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:
- site pages
- blog categories
- archive
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to external sites
- most popular posts
- recent comments from users
- advertisements
- testimonials
- polls
- RSS content
- registration box
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why widgets make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, it helps to first cover some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also show up below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users a number of widgetized sections)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets you can use on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & 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 active and available for use on your site.
In addition, your Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
Looking 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 they have been arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now change these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging & dropping elements …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar area, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements using widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from the sidebar area is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove a WordPress widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always restore widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to expand 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 settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customization)
Widget Previews
Depending on the theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes 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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing changes (and avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do plenty of modifications and adjustments to the widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new configuration to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install 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 work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to configure a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
***
This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to keep reading:
***
"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
***