As discussed in this article, there are lots of great things about choosing the WordPress CMS platform to build and grow a website or blog. 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 with no programming skills or knowledge required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, delete, and reorganize content from your blog’s sidebar navigation menu (or header and footer sections too, 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:
- website page list
- site categories
- archives
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to resources
- links to your recent posts
- recent comments from users
- image banners
- client testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS content excerpts
- member login section
- videos
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and why widgets make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we teach you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s review some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar navigation area, 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 offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become activated for use.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets Using Drag & Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag & 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 on your site like:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If you take a look inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the back-end widget section …
If we change the order these widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
As you can see, this instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation section, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar Navigation Section
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar section is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the settings for that widget …
(Toggling expands/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 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 the theme you have installed, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your site.
The ability to manage widgets inside the WP 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 prior to publishing changes (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets 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 …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the back-end.
You can do lots of edits and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will then be instantly updated and reflected on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new configuration to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your 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 go through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure various commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
To continue reading, click this link:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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