As we have discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing tool to build, manage and grow your website or blog is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or rearrange your site’s layout with no coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, remove, and rearrange various types of content from your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- index of pages
- content categories
- blog post archive
- customized menus
- links to resources
- your most popular posts
- post comments
- advertisements
- quotations
- survey questions & results
- content from RSS feeds
- opt-in subscription form
- video galleries
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other 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 why widgets can make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this tutorial series you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
The Basics
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in your theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar section, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can also show up below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately available for use.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the backend widget area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ image banner (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Menu
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar area is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar menu …
(Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your WP widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to your site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the widget’s settings …
(Toggles 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizable options)
Preview Widgets
Depending upon the theme you use, you’re also able to preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from within the dashboard 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 before publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available to your site visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving the changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest configuration to your site visitors.
Since the theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar navigation menu.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to begin configuring a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
To keep 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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