As we have discussed in this article, there are lots of benefits in choosing the WordPress web publishing application to build and grow a web site. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your website, or rearrange the site’s layout without web coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, remove, and control content from your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on your site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- page lists
- blog post categories
- archive
- menus
- links to resources
- most read posts
- recent comments
- advertising banners
- quotations
- surveys
- RSS content excerpts
- opt-in form
- images
- social media sharing 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 why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s first review some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar navigation section, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be found in the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become active and can be used for their purpose.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets using simple drag & drop in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout by using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site in exactly the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now change the order these widgets in the Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
This immediately changes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the support section (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from your sidebar. You can always restore widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets offer various options that allow you to further customize your site features. This includes 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 toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no configuration options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customization)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending on the WP theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to customize and manage your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before committing anything to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from within 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 any changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets in the Customize section)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and it will all be done in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After your changes have been saved, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through 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, the next step is to start configuring a number of frequently-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to read the rest of this tutorial:
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"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
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