As we have explained in this post, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing tool to build, manage and grow a website is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and rearrange the layout of your website without the need to have web coding skills or knowledge.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, delete, and rearrange content on your blog’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme you are using) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the theme you have installed) like:
- nested list of pages
- site categories
- archive
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- post comments
- clickable ads
- quotations
- surveys & polls
- RSS content excerpts
- shopping cart forms
- video
- Facebook 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 how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series you will learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first go over some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also display inside the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets you can use on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout using drag & drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your site)
If we look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the active widget area …
If we rearrange the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This immediately changes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar section, and the support graphic button (2) can now be found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements with widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Deleting widgets from your sidebar 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, you can either open up the widget 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 section …
(How to remove widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from your sidebar navigation section. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes making certain types of information hidden to your site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, 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 provide users with little to no customization, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configurable options)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending on the theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes 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 your widget content will appear before publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
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 screen in the backend.
You can do a number of modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and see all changes 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 the changes, your new updates will automatically show on your site.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the site is coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section one of this tutorial series on how to use WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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