How To Use And Configure WordPress Widgets – Part 4

Learn how to add and configure various useful WordPress widgets on your sidebar and how to create custom sidebar widgets …

How To Add WordPress Widgets To Your SiteIn Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.

In Part Three, we began configuring a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.

In this final installment, we are going to conclude the tutorial series by learning how to configure a few more useful WordPress sidebar widgets.

Important Info

In WordPress v. 4.8, WordPress introduced new media widgets covering images, audio, and video, and an updated text widget that supports visual editing

WordPress 4.8 - WordPress Widget Updates

(WordPress 4.8 introduced new widget updates)

These widgets let you add content from your media library and media stored in other servers or storage locations (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc.).

Let’s go through how to configure and use each of these widgets:

Rich Text Widget

From version 4.8 onward, WordPress has added native rich-text editing capabilities to text widgets …

Rich Text Widget

(Rich Text Widget)

This lets you format text, create lists, add emphasis, and insert links into your sidebar text quickly and easily …

(Format text easily with the new text widget)

To learn more about using text widgets in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

WordPress Image Widget

The WordPress Image Widget lets you add an image to your sidebar from your Media Library or an external storage location.

To add an image, drag an image widget to your active widgets area …

Image Widget

(Image Widget)

Click on ‘Add Image’ …

Let's add an image!

(Let’s add an image!)

Select an image from the Image Library, check or add image details (e.g. Caption, Alt text, Description, etc.) if desired and click the ‘Add to Widget’ button …

Select an image

(Select an image)

The image will automatically load into the widget area …

Image added to widget

(Image added to widget)

Add a Title to your image if you want, or leave the ‘Title:’ field blank and click ‘Save’ …

Save your image

(Save your image)

Preview your website and you should see the image displayed where you have placed your image widget …

Image added to website using image widget

(Image added to website using WordPress image widget)

If you want to link your image to an URL, go back to your image widget and click on ‘Edit Image’ …

Image Widget - Edit Image

(Image Widget – Edit Image)

Add a URL in the ‘Image Details’ > ‘Display Settings’ > ‘Link To’ screen and click the ‘Update’ button …

Link your image to an URL

(Link your image to an URL)

To add an image stored in an external server or remote location, locate and copy the URL of the image to your clipboard …

Copy image URL to your clipboard

(Copy image URL to your clipboard)

Go back to your image widget and click on ‘Replace Image’ …

Image Widget - Replace image

(Image Widget – Replace image)

The Media Library browser opens. Click on ‘Insert from URL’ and paste in the image URL copied to your clipboard, then click on ‘Add to Widget’  …

Add image URL

(Add image URL)

If you have previously added an image title in your widget, remember to replace it if required, then click ‘Save’ …

Save your new image

(Save your new image)

The new image will now display on your sidebar …

New image added using WordPress image widget

(New image added using WordPress image widget)

To learn more about adding images to WordPress, see this tutorial:

WordPress Video Widget

The WordPress Video Widget lets you add audio files to your sidebar from your Media Library, YouTube, Vimeo, or an external storage location.

To add a video to the sidebar, drag a Video widget to your active widgets area …

Drag a Video widget to your sidebar

(Drag a Video widget to your sidebar)

Click the ‘Add Video’ button …

Video widget - Add Video

(Video widget – Add Video)

Select a video from your media library or add a video URL and click the ‘Add to Widget’ button …

Add a video URL

(Add a video URL)

Add a title to the widget if desired and click ‘Save’ …

WordPress Video Widget - Save Button

(WordPress Video Widget – Save Button)

Your video will display on your site where the video widget has been added …

Video added using WordPress video widget

(Video added using WordPress video widget)

To learn more about adding video to WordPress, see this tutorial:

WordPress Audio Widget

The WordPress Audio Widget lets you add audio files like podcasts, music or a personal greeting to your sidebar from your media library or an external storage location.

To add an audio file to your sidebar, drag an audio widget to your active widgets area …

Add an audio widget to your sidebar

(Add an audio widget to your sidebar)

Click the ‘Add Audio’ button…

WordPress Audio Widget - Add Audio button

(WordPress Audio Widget – Add Audio button)

Select an audio file from your media library or insert the URL of an audio file stored in an external location …

Select your audio file

(Select your audio file)

Add a title to your widget if desired and click the ‘Save’ button …

Save the audio file on your audio widget

(Save the audio file on your audio widget)

Your site will now display an audio file to visitors where you have placed the audio widget …

Audio file added to your site using the WordPress Audio Widget

(Audio file added to your site using the WordPress Audio Widget)

To learn more about adding audios to WordPress, see this tutorial:

Add A Newsfeed

Let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area that will display news items from An RSS feed.

To add the widget, find an RSS widget in the Available Widgets section and drag it to your sidebar area …

WordPress RSS Widget

(WordPress RSS Widget)

Enter the following information into the widget settings:

  1. RSS feed URL: Paste the URL of your RSS feed here.
  2. Feed Title: If you would like to add a widget title, enter it into this field.
  3. Items to display: Choose the number of feed items you would like to show on the sidebar navigation menu from the drop-down menu.
  4. Display item content: Tick this box if you want to show the item content.
  5. Display item author: Tick this box to display the item item author.
  6. Display item date: Tick this box if you would like to display the RSS feed item date.

RSS Widget settings

(RSS Widget settings)

Experiment with different settings to find the ideal combination for your website.

The example below shows an RSS widget configured with the settings shown above …

WordPress RSS Widget on blog sidebar

(RSS Widget on blog sidebar)

The screenshot below shows a published RSS widget configured using additional options selected …

RSS Widget settings

(WordPress RSS Widget settings)

To learn more about using RSS feeds in WordPress, see this tutorial:

Add A Tag Cloud

Let’s add A Tag Cloud widget to your sidebar menu.

Useful Info

Tags displayed in your Tag Cloud widget are listed in the Tags screen …

Tags screen

(Tags screen)

To use the widget, find a Tag Cloud widget in the Available Widgets section and drag it to the sidebar …

WordPress Tag Cloud Widget

(Tag Cloud Widget)

There is not much to set up. You can add a widget title, and choose whether to display items in the tag cloud using Tags or Categories. Click Save when finished …

Tag Cloud Widget settings

(Tag Cloud Widget settings)

Your Tag cloud will now display on your sidebar …

Tag cloud displaying post tags

(Tag Cloud widget displaying tags)

The example below shows a published Tag Cloud widget set up for displaying Categories instead of Tags

Tag Cloud widget displaying WordPress categories

(Tag Cloud widget displaying categories)

To learn more about using post tags in WordPress, see this tutorial:

How To Configure The WordPress Archives Widget In The Sidebar Navigation Section

To complete this tutorial series, we’ll configure the Archives Widget, which is a commonly-used WordPress widget.

As you continue adding new content to WordPress, your older posts begin to move further away from public view. Your posts are still there, it’s just not as visible.

The Archives Widget allows visitors to view WordPress posts that you may have published months ago …

WordPress Archives Widget

(Archives Widget)

There is very little to configure in this widget. You can add a widget title, and choose whether to display items in the sidebar in a dropdown menu, and show the number of posts . Click Save when finished …

Archives Widget settings

(WordPress Archives Widget settings)

The example below shows a published Archives widget set up for showing posts as a dropdown menu with post counts enabled …

WordPress Archives widget added to sidebar

(WordPress Archives Widget displayed on sidebar)

Now that you know how to configure your default WordPress sidebar widgets, let’s explore some other useful ways to use WordPress widgets.

Useful Widget Tips

Here are some useful features worth knowing about widgets:

Add ‘Visibility’ Function To Widgets

Installing the Jetpack plugin not only adds many new widgets to your widgets area …

Jetpack Widgets

(Jetpack Widgets)

It also adds a useful ‘Visibility’ function to all WordPress widgets …

Jetpack adds 'Visibility' to all widgets

(Jetpack adds ‘Visibility’ to all widgets)

This function lets you specify whether to display or hide widgets from your sidebar based on conditions you set for a particular category, author, user. role, tag, date, or page …

Set conditions to show or hide widgets

(Set conditions to show or hide widgets)

This is a really useful function to have.

For example, you can:

  • Display a widget only on your home page or only on posts published under certain categories, tags, authors, dates, etc.
  • Configure widgets to display specific or time-sensitive announcements based on a post’s category, date, etc.
  • Configure widgets to display targeted ad banners based on a post’s category or tag.
  • Hide widgets from appearing on certain posts or pages to prevent users from being distracted (e.g. remove widgets with ads from your sales pages).
  • And more!

To learn more about using the Jetpack plugin, go here:

Override Default Sidebar Widgets

If you see widgets displaying on your site’s sidebar navigation area that aren’t showing up under your active sidebar inside the Appearance > Widgets section, it’s because some themes will display their own default set of widgets until you add widgets to your sidebar menu.

For example, the site below shows some widgets in the blog sidebar …

How To Override Default Widgets

If you look inside the Widgets area, however, you will find that no widgets have been added to any of the active widget areas …

Override Default WordPress Sidebar Widgets

This theme could be using default widgets.

As soon as you add one or more widgets to an available widget area, the placeholder widgets will disappear and the widgets you want added will be used instead.

Note: If you want nothing to appear in your sidebar, either use a theme page template without a widgets layout or just add a blank Text widget to the sidebar navigation section.

Just add a blank text widget …

Override Default WordPress Sidebar Widgets

And the default widgets won’t appear in the sidebar/footer section …

Overriding Default Sidebar Widgets

Widget Accessibility Mode

As we’ve shown you previously, with WordPress you can quickly rearrange how content is displayed in widgetized areas of your website sidebars, footers and navigation menus with just a few clicks of your mouse button, using drag-&-drop …

Reorganize sidebar layout using widgets to improve user experience

(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve your site’s user experience)

In the screenshot above, for example, you can see that we have reorganized the site’s sidebar area by switching around the search and testimonial sections. This is easily done by dragging and dropping the widgets into different positions inside the sidebar widget area.

Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help improve your site’s user experience.

If, for some reason, you find that you cannot move widgets around using drag-and-drop (e.g. using a mobile device that doesn’t support dragging-and-dropping), you can still use widgets if you enable Accessibility Mode.

Enabling Widget Accessibility Mode

Enabling Accessibility Mode, via the Screen Options, lets you use Add and Edit buttons instead of using drag and drop.

To enable Accessibility Mode, log into your admin and go to the Widgets section …

WordPress Widgets Menu

(WordPress Widgets Menu)

Select Screen Options on the top right hand corner of the screen …

WordPress Widgets - Screen Options

(Widgets – Screen Options)

Click link to enable accessibility mode …

Enable accessibility mode

(Switch On accessibility mode)

Once accessibility mode has been enabled, the widgets in the Available Widgets section will display an Add link, and the widgets in the Active Widgets section will display an Edit link …

Enable Widget Accessibility Mode

If you click on a Widget’s Add link in the Available Widgets section …

How To Enable Accessibility Mode For WordPress Widgets

A screen will display the selected widget with options for customizing the widget’s settings, selecting a widget location, with drop-down menus for specifying the position of the widget in the widget location (e.g. position “1”, “2”, “6”, etc.) …

Enable Widget Accessibility Mode

Click Save Widget to add the widget to the Active Widgets section, or click the Cancel button to go back to the previous screen …

Enabling Accessibility Mode For Widgets

Click on the Edit link of an active widget …

Enable Accessibility Mode For WordPress Widgets

A screen displays the selected widget with options for changing its settings.

Click Save Widget to update your settings and return to the Active Widgets screen, or click the Delete button to remove the widget from the Active Widgets area …

How To Enable Accessibility Mode For WordPress Widgets

Click on Disable accessibility mode in the Screen Options section to restore the drag and drop functionality to your Widgets …

Turn off accessibility mode

(Switch off accessibility mode)

Create Your Own Custom Sidebar Widgets

Most widgets will either be installed by default when you create a new WordPress site, or be automatically added to your Available Widgets section when you install a new plugin on your site.

If you want to create a sidebar widget, then here is an easy way:

First, create a new Post and type in the content that you would like to display on the sidebar…

Creating Your Own Sidebar Widgets

Ensure that any images you plan to use fit the maximum width of the sidebar navigation menu. Also, keep in mind that there’s no a lot of room to add content on the sidebar, so keep your information concise.

Also, don’t worry about publishing your Post – all we are looking for is the content HTML to be pasted into your sidebar widget.

Once you have created your content in the WordPress post editor, click on the Text tab …

Create Your Own Custom Sidebar Widgets

Select and copy everything to your clipboard…

Creating Your Own Custom Sidebar Widgets

Next, go into your Widgets Screen.

Add a new Text widget to your sidebar, paste the content from your clipboard into the content field and click Save

Creating Your Own Custom Sidebar Widgets

Your custom widget is now added to the sidebar…

Create Your Own Custom Sidebar Widgets

(Create your own custom sidebar widgets)

Congratulations! Now you know how to use and configure a number of WordPress sidebar widgets.

How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Website

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