As we explain in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your website’s functionality, or reorganize your site’s layout with no programming skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, delete, and reorganize various blocks of content in your website’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on your site) 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) like:
- list of pages
- categories
- post archives
- custom menus
- links to resources
- your most popular posts
- comments
- clickable ads
- testimonials
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed items
- registration box
- product images
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, see this article:
In this tutorial we show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar section, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can also display inside the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-enabled sections)
These widgetized areas 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 you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag-and-drop)
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 available for use.
In addition, the Widgets panel includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove things using widgets by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s 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 like:
- An opt-in 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 on your site display)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets are arranged in the active widget screen …
Let’s now change the order these widgets in the Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support banner (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
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. This includes 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 that widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to 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 provide users with little to no configurable options)
Widget Previews
Depending on which WordPress theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before committing anything live to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets inside the 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 before publishing any changes (and avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do several things in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After your changes have been saved, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because the theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your 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 a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section one of this series of tutorials.
To continue reading, click this link:
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