As we’ve discussed in this post, there are lots of benefits in choosing the WordPress web publishing tool to build, manage and grow your website or blog. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the layout of your website without coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and reorganize content in your site’s sidebar (or 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 like:
- pages on your site
- categories
- archive
- menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- advertising banners
- client testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS feed items
- newsletter registration form
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first explain some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar section, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also display inside the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets you have 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 your sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become available for use on your site.
Your Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder the layout of your widget-ready areas using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget screen …
Let’s now change the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging & dropping items …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this instantly reorganizes the order of items in your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ graphic banner (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar Area
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove a WP widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer various settings that allow you to further configure things. This includes making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove 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 give you little to no customization)
Previewing Widgets
Depending upon which WordPress theme you have installed, you’re also able to manage and customize your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before committing anything live to your site.
The ability to manage widgets from your own WP dashboard is a great 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 prior to publishing any changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, deleting 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 your changes will instantly become available to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
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 tend to affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets.
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, it’s time to learn how to begin configuring various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
To keep reading, click this link:
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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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