As we have explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, or rearrange the layout of your website with no web coding skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, remove, and control content from your site’s sidebar (and 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:
- index of pages
- site categories
- blog post archive
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to your posts
- clickable ad banners
- client testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS content excerpts
- customers login section
- video thumbnails
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before configuring and using widgets, it helps to first cover some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar navigation area, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also show up in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
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. automatically become active and available for use.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout by with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support button, 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)
If we could peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar area in the same order as they have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
Let’s now reorganize these widgets in the 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 area …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve visitor 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 banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar 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 …
(How to delete widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing a widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from your sidebar navigation section. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. This can include things like hiding information from 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 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 provide users with little to no customizable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no configurable options)
Preview 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 are happy with what you see 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 the widget content will appear prior to publishing it (and avoid making mistakes), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do many modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly updated and reflected to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, the new configuration will automatically show on your site.
Since the theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s configure various frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
Click here to keep reading:
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