As we’ve explained in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, and redesign the layout of your site with no web coding skills required.
WordPress lets you easily add, delete, and rearrange content from your site’s sidebar area (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of pages
- blog post categories
- archived published posts
- menus
- links to resources
- links to recent posts
- comments
- image banners
- quotations
- survey results
- RSS content
- opt-in subscription form
- video thumbnails
- social media share buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we show you how to use and configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first cover some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar navigation section, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also appear inside the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widgetized sections)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated 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.
Your Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove things using widgets with drag and drop in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, in the image below, 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’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If we look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of these items around …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar navigation menu is really easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes 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 …
(Toggling expands/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 may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customization)
Theme Customizer
Depending on which theme you choose, you’re also able to customize widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything to your site.
Widget management 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 manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do many edits to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and it will all be done in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display the new changes to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you use tend to affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you go 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 widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series.
To continue reading, click here:
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