As we have explained in this article, there are loads of great benefits in using the WordPress CMS platform to build and grow your website. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without code editing skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and reconfigure various types of content from your blog’s sidebar navigation section (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’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the theme) like:
- nested page lists
- categories
- archived blog posts
- customized menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- advertisements
- testimonials
- survey results
- RSS feed items
- shopping cart information
- video thumbnails
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we explain how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized sections in your theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar area, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also be found below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widget areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become activated for use.
In addition, your Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets using drag and drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout and order of your website’s widget-enabled sections using drag & drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar menu in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the active widget area …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
This instantly reorganizes the layout of your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support banner (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing a WP widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/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 settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configuration options)
Widget Previews
Depending on the theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before making any permanent changes to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets from the 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 prior to publishing changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do lots of things to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and it’s all done in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly updated and reflected on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, the new updates will automatically be displayed on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar menu.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your 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 begin configuring various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
Click here to continue:
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