As we’ve discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the layout of your website without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily insert, remove, and reconfigure content from your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- index of pages
- site categories
- archives
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- recent comments
- clickable ad banners
- customer testimonials
- surveys
- content from RSS feeds
- opt-in subscription form
- product images
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial we show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s first cover some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also be added in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide multiple widgetized sections)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become active.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
Let’s now change these widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar section …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation menu, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) is placed above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout using widgets to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from the sidebar area is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar navigation section. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered 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 toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the settings for that widget …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove your 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 give you little to no configurable options)
WordPress Theme Customizer
Depending on the theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to customize and manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from your 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 any changes (and avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live 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 will bring you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do lots of edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting 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 the changes will be instantly updated and reflected on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
As soon as the changes are saved, 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 will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series.
To view Part 2, click here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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