As we discuss in this article, there are loads of great things about choosing WordPress to build and grow a web site. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the layout of your site without having any web coding skills.
WordPress lets you easily add, remove, and rearrange content in your website’s sidebar section (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you are using) 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 you have installed) like:
- index of pages
- post categories
- blog post archive
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- advertisements
- customer testimonials
- surveys
- content from RSS feeds
- subscriber form
- video galleries
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we explain how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before configuring and using widgets, it helps to first cover some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar navigation menu, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme, widgets can also show up in the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users a number of widget-ready areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets you have available.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
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. instantly become activated for use on your site.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any 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 things using widgets using drag & drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout and order of your widgetized areas with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar section in the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget section …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the items around …
(Drag and drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
This instantly reorganizes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the support section (2) is found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout using widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Area
Deleting widgets from your sidebar navigation area is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your WP widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from your sidebar. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. 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.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the settings for that widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configuration options)
Preview Widgets
Depending upon which theme you use, you can also customize your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with what you see before making any permanent changes to your website.
Widget management 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 any changes (and avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After your changes are saved, the new updates will automatically be added to your site.
Since the WordPress theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature 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 configure a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series on how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to access the rest of this tutorial series:
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
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