As we discuss in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your website, and rearrange the layout of your site without web coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage various types of content from your blog’s sidebar (or 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
- post archives
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- clickable ads
- client testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS content
- shopping cart forms
- video thumbnails
- social media buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they 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 frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Basic Concepts
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, let’s first go over some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be added, such as the sidebar area, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can also be added in the content area …
(Many themes offer users a number of widgetized areas)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area 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 by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and can be used for their purpose.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets using simple drag & drop inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features display on your WordPress site)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the back-end widget section …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation area …
This immediately changes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar section, and the support banner (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar section is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your WP widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from your sidebar navigation area. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, 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, click Delete to remove 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 configurable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizing options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending upon which theme you choose, you can also customize widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your site.
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 your widget content will appear before publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do several things to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and it’s all done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After your changes are saved, the new settings will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since the theme you use tend to affect 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 Customizer feature to preview all 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 start configuring a number of commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section one of this tutorial on using WordPress widgets.
Click here to keep reading:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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