As we’ve discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, or reconfigure your site’s layout without requiring programming skills.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, delete, and reconfigure content on your blog’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on your theme) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of your web pages
- categories
- archive
- menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- post comments
- advertisements
- user testimonials
- surveys
- RSS feed items
- newsletter registration form
- video thumbnails
- Facebook feeds
- add 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 WP widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this tutorial series you will learn how to use and configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also display inside the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately active.
Your Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder the layout and order of your theme’s widget-ready sections by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in 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 how certain features display on your site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in exactly the same order as they have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
If we change the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the items around …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation section, and the support section (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar menu is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar area …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting a WP widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from your sidebar navigation section. You can always restore 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, 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 settings for the widget …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove the 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizable options)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending on the theme you use, you can also customize and manage widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website.
Widget management is a great 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 prior to publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets 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 brings you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), and everything is done in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display your 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 your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see your site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s begin configuring various frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section one of this series of tutorials on using WordPress widgets.
To continue reading, click here:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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