As we explain in this article, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or change the layout of your site with no web coding knowledge required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, delete, and reconfigure various types of content from your site’s sidebar navigation area (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme you are using) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- pages on your site
- site categories
- blog post archive
- menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- user comments
- clickable ads
- testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS feed items
- opt-in form
- product catalog images
- social media share buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first make sure that you understand some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be added in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widget-ready sections)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets you can use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and available for use.
Your 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 do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure 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 display things on your site like:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
If we take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site’s sidebar area in exactly the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget screen …
If we rearrange the order of the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping elements …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This immediately changes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar menu, and the ‘contact us’ image button (2) is placed above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting a WP widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized. 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 settings for that widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove 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)
Preview Widgets
Depending on the theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before committing anything to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets inside your own 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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing it (to avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer screen in the backend.
You can do many edits and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly applied and reflected on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
As soon as your changes are saved, the new configuration will automatically show on your site.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all 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 the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time 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 tutorial.
Click here to access Part 2:
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