As we’ve discussed in this article, there are loads of benefits in using WordPress to manage and grow your business online. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure your site’s layout without code editing skills or knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, delete, and rearrange various blocks of content in 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 like:
- index of pages
- blog post categories
- blog post archive
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- clickable ad banners
- quotations
- survey results
- content from RSS feeds
- subscription form
- image galleries
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s go over some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can also be found in the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets you can use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “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 areas of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become activated for use.
Your Widgets panel also 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.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget section …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar area …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar section, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) is now placed above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Menu
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove a WordPress widget)
Repeat this process for any 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
Most widgets can be further customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to your 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 expand the item …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to 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 provide users with little to no customizable options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending upon the WP theme you use, you’re also able to preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything live to your site.
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 before publishing any changes (to avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do plenty of edits in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved the changes, the new configuration will automatically show on your site.
Since the WordPress theme you use tend to affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install 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.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s configure a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials on using WordPress widgets.
Click here to view Part Two:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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