As we’ve explained in this post, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your site, or rearrange the site’s layout without coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, remove, and reorganize content in your site’s sidebar area (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you are using) 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:
- page lists
- categories
- post archives
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- recent comments from users
- advertising banners
- testimonials
- poll results
- RSS feed items
- opt-in form
- videos
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, see this article:
In this tutorial we will show you how to use and configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in your theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar navigation section, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also be used in the content area …
(Many themes offer users a number of widget sections)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and can be used for their purpose.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets with drag & drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout by using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site’s sidebar menu in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the active widget area …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging & dropping elements …
(Drag & 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 to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the support section (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Menu
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from the sidebar navigation menu. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for that widget …
(Toggles expand/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 may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configuration options)
Previewing Widgets
Depending on the theme you choose, 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 website or blog.
Widget management 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 it (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets 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 will bring you to the Customizer section in the back-end.
You can do many edits and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and it’s all done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will be instantly updated and made visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new changes to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
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.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure 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 view Part 2, click here:
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