As we explain in this post, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your site, or reconfigure the layout of your website without the need to have code editing skills.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, remove, and rearrange content in your blog’s sidebar menu (and header and footer sections, 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 WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- website page list
- categories
- archives
- menus that display only the pages you select
- links to external sites
- most popular posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to your posts
- text ads
- quotations
- poll questions & results
- content from RSS feeds
- shopping cart forms
- product catalog images
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this tutorial series we show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be found in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widget areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, 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 & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately activated for use on your site.
In addition, your Widgets panel includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets with drag and drop in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder the order and layout of your site’s widget-ready layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP 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 in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the back-end widget area …
If we rearrange the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of these widgets around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements 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 area, and the support graphic banner (2) now sits above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Area
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete a WordPress widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove your WP widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reactivate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets provide various settings that allow you to further configure your site features. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered 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 display the widget’s settings …
(Toggling expands/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 give you little to no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configuration options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending upon which theme you are using, you’re also able to 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 website or blog.
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 prior to publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do many edits in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), 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 to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display your latest configuration to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your 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 widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial.
To continue, click this link:
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