As we explain in this post, there are loads of benefits in choosing the WordPress CMS platform for building, managing and growing your website. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and rearrange the layout of your website without code editing skills or knowledge required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage content on your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme is installed on the site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- index of pages
- post categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- most read posts
- user comments
- advertisements
- customer testimonials
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed items
- subscription form
- videos
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we will show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also show up below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets that you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the window displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become activated for use on your site.
In addition, your Widgets panel 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 WordPress Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag & drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar menu in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now rearrange the order of the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reordered in the sidebar menu …
As you can see, this instantly reorganizes the layout of your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation area, and the support section (2) can now be found above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section
Deleting widgets from your sidebar navigation menu is really easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete a WP widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove a WordPress widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer additional options that allow you to further configure your site features. This can include things like hiding information from 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 …
(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 …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizable 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 are happy with what you see before committing anything to your site.
Widget management is a great feature of WordPress. You can work in preview mode inside the WordPress Theme Customizer screen (Appearance > Customize) and see how your widget content will appear before publishing changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), 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 your changes will instantly become visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display your latest configuration to your site visitors.
Since the theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to see the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure a number of commonly-used WordPress sidebar 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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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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