As we discuss in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, and reconfigure the layout of your website without the need to have programming skills or knowledge.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, remove, and rearrange various blocks of content on your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you have installed) 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 theme you have installed) like:
- page lists
- categories
- post archives
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- user comments
- clickable ads
- quotations
- polls & surveys
- content from RSS feeds
- subscription form
- video
- 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 easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, let’s first explain some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be used in the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets you have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag and drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and can be used for their purpose.
In addition, your Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout with drag and drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your WordPress site)
If you take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
If we change the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the widgets around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar area …
This instantly changes the layout of your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (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) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar navigation area …
(Search widget)
To remove an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove your WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar navigation area. You can always restore widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget toggles between expanding and collapsing 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 remove your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no customizable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customization)
WordPress Theme Customizer
Depending upon which theme you choose, you’re also able to customize 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.
The ability to manage widgets inside the WordPress 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 prior to publishing changes (and avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live 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 section in the backend.
You can do lots of edits to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly applied and made visible on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
As soon as your changes have been saved, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your new configuration to your site visitors.
Since the WordPress theme you choose tend to affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar area.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your 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, it’s time to learn how to configure various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series about how to use Widgets.
To continue, click here:
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