As we have discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress web publishing application to build, manage and grow a website is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, and reorganize the site’s layout without having any coding skills and knowledge.
WordPress allows you to easily add, delete, and control content on your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, 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:
- nested list of pages
- content categories
- archives
- customized menus
- links to resources
- most popular posts
- recent comments
- clickable ads
- client testimonials
- polls
- RSS feed content
- member login section
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets 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 tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s cover some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also be used in the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users multiple widget-ready areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag & drop ease)
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. immediately become active on your site.
In addition, your Widgets panel 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 insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder the order of your website’s widget-enabled layout using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features display on your site)
If you took a peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar section in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the active widget section …
If we change the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping elements …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar section, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) now sits above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Area
Removing widgets from your sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your 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 a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar menu. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like hiding information from 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 toggles between expanding and collapsing 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, 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizable options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending on which theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from the WordPress 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 any changes you’ve made (and avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do several edits in preview mode (like inserting, deleting 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 the changes will be instantly applied and reflected on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your new configuration to your site visitors.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar navigation section.
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, the next step is to start configuring various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series about using Widgets.
Click here to view Part 2:
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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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