As we’ve discussed in this article, there are lots of benefits in using the WordPress web publishing software for building and growing a website. One of these is that you can easily add content, enhance your site, or reconfigure the layout of your website without the need to have web coding skills or knowledge.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily add, delete, and reorganize various types of content in your blog’s sidebar menu (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of pages
- categories
- post archives
- menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- recent comments from users
- clickable ad banners
- quotations
- poll results
- RSS content
- shopping cart information
- image galleries
- social media buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Twitter)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial series we are going to show you how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before we start configuring and using 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 built-in sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar navigation area, header area, and the footer area. 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 sections)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily rearrange the order and layout of your site’s widget-ready layout with drag & drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
If we rearrange these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately changes the layout of the 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 ‘contact us’ image banner (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete a WordPress widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from your sidebar area. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(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 settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customization)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending upon the theme you have installed on your site, 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 your customizations before committing anything live 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 your widget content will appear before publishing changes (and avoid making mistakes), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes 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 backend.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will then be instantly applied and reflected on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new configuration to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar area.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how your site is coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s start configuring various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
***
This is the end of section one of this tutorial about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to access the rest of this tutorial:
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***