As we have explained in this article, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, and redesign the layout of your site with no web coding skills required.
WordPress allows you to easily add, delete, and reconfigure content in your blog’s sidebar navigation 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 like:
- list of your web pages
- categories
- archived blog post entries
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- advertising
- quotations
- survey results
- RSS content excerpts
- opt-in form
- video galleries
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- 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 how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first review some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also get added below or above the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide a number of widget-enabled sections)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and 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. instantly become activated for use.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout and order of your theme’s widgetized layout by with drag & drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
If you take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets are arranged in the active widget screen …
Let’s now rearrange these widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping some things around …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support section (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar section …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from your sidebar navigation menu. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets offer a number of options that allow you to further configure things. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete your 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 customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizable options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on the WP theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to 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 website or blog.
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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing any changes (and avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do several modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your new changes to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see your 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 frequently-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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