As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, and change the layout of your site with no web coding knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, remove, and reconfigure content on 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:
- site pages
- categories
- archived blog post entries
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- post comments
- text ads
- quotations
- polls & surveys
- RSS content
- newsletter registration form
- image galleries
- social media buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Pinterest)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s review some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar section, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also be added in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widget areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
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 available for use.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If we took a look inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget area …
If we rearrange the order of these widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of these widgets around …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this immediately changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar area, and the support section (2) can now be found above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your Sidebar Menu
Deleting widgets from your sidebar section is really easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove a widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the widget’s settings …
(Toggles expand/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 may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizing options)
WordPress Theme Customizer
Depending on which theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to customize and manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from your dashboard 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 before publishing it (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and this 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!)
Once the changes have been saved, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new configuration to your site visitors.
Since the theme you choose can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete 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, let’s begin configuring a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
***
This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial on how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to view Part 2:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com
***