As we have discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or rearrange the layout of your site with no web coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily insert, remove, and rearrange various types of content on your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on your theme) 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
- blog post categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- clickable text ads
- user testimonials
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed content
- shopping cart information
- video thumbnails
- social media buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial we will show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we start configuring and using widgets, it helps to first review some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also show up inside the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
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 the sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become activated for use.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar section in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget section …
If we rearrange the order of the above widgets in the Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar menu …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can help improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar area, and the support image button (2) is now found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From The Sidebar
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar navigation area is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete 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 area …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar menu. You can always reinstate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions 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 settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/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 give you little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on the theme you have installed on your site, you can also manage and customize widgets 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.
The ability to manage widgets from within your WordPress 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 any changes (to avoid making errors), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(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 screen in the back-end.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and it will all be done in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since the WordPress theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar menu.
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.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to configure a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section one of this series of tutorials.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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