As we’ve explained in this post, there are loads of benefits in using WordPress for building, managing and growing a website. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, and rearrange the layout of your site without requiring any programming skills or knowledge.
WordPress allows you to easily add, delete, and rearrange various blocks of content on your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) 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 theme you have installed) like:
- page lists
- content categories
- blog post archive
- custom menus
- links to resources
- links to recent posts
- post comments
- advertising banners
- quotations
- poll questions & results
- RSS content
- opt-in form
- product catalog images
- social media buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Basic Concepts
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, let’s first review some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized sections in your theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also be found below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widgetized areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that you currently have available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated 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 available for use on your site.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features appear on the site’s sidebar section in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now change the order the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this immediately changes the order of items in your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation area, and the support graphic banner (2) is now placed above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The Sidebar Menu
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar navigation menu is really easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, 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 a WP widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on which theme you have installed on your site, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your site.
The ability to manage widgets inside your own WP dashboard is a great 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 prior to publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will then be instantly applied and reflected on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display your new changes to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you choose can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to start configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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