As we have discussed in this article, there are so many great things about using WordPress for building and growing a business online. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without requiring web programming skills or knowledge.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily insert, delete, and rearrange various types of content in your blog’s sidebar area (and 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’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on your theme) like:
- website page list
- categories
- blog post archive
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- excerpts of recent comments added to posts
- clickable text ads
- testimonials
- polls
- content from RSS feeds
- opt-in form
- videos
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
- 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 how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we teach you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we explain how to configure widgets, it helps to first review some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also display inside the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become available for use on your site.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site’s sidebar section in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget area …
Let’s now reorganize these widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of the widgets around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ image button (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From The Sidebar Section
Deleting widgets from your sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions 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, click Delete to delete your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget settings …
(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 give you little to no configuration options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on which WordPress theme you have installed on your site, 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 what you have done before making any permanent changes to your site.
The ability to manage widgets inside the WordPress dashboard 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 before publishing it (and avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, 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 the changes will instantly become available on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving your changes, your site 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 your sidebar navigation menu.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to start configuring a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series on using WordPress widgets.
To continue, click this link:
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