As we’ve discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, improve your site’s functionality, or change the layout of your site without web coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and reorganize various types of content in your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of your web pages
- categories
- archived blog posts
- custom menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- excerpts of recent comments added to posts
- clickable text ads
- customer testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS content excerpts
- member login section
- video thumbnails
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready 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 the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also display inside the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays all “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active on your site.
The Widgets screen 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.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the order and layout of your site’s widgetized layout 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 click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget section …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping elements …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar area …
This instantly changes the layout of your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your Sidebar Navigation Menu
Removing widgets from your sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 …
(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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customization)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending upon the theme you are using, 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 the customized edits before committing anything live to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets inside the WP dashboard is a valuable 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 it (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do many edits and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), 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 then be instantly updated and reflected on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving the changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This saves 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, the next step is to learn how to configure a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials.
Click here to continue:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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