As discussed in this article, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without web coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and rearrange content from your site’s sidebar menu (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 like:
- index of pages
- content categories
- archived published posts
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- most popular posts
- recent comments
- advertising
- quotations
- surveys & polls
- RSS feed items
- subscription form
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, go here:
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s first go over some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar navigation area, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be added in the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widget areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets section displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & 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.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily rearrange the order of your widget-enabled layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your site)
If you take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site’s sidebar area in exactly the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget section …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately changes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ image button (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar navigation section is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from the sidebar navigation section …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete your WordPress 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 area. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets offer a number of options that allow you to further configure them. This can include things like hiding information from 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, click Delete to delete the 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 customizing options)
Previewing Widgets
Depending on which theme you have installed on your site, 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 committing anything live to your website or blog.
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 your widget content will appear before publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do lots of edits and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since the WordPress theme you use determines how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
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 (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 learn how to configure various commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
To continue, click this link:
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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