As we’ve explained in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your website, and rearrange the layout of your website without web coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress lets you easily add, remove, and reconfigure content from your blog’s sidebar (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’s sidebar area (plus headers and footers and other areas, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- nested page lists
- post categories
- post archives
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- your most popular posts
- user comments
- clickable text ads
- testimonials
- polls
- RSS feed items
- shopping cart forms
- product catalog images
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, let’s first explain some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar navigation section, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be found below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widget areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets section displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. 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 site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your site)
If we take a look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
If we change the above 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 reorganized in your sidebar …
This immediately changes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the support banner (2) is now found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your Sidebar Navigation Menu
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Delete your widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove your WP 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 customized. 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 display the settings for the widget …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no customizable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizing options)
Previewing Widgets
Depending on which WP 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 your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets inside 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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing it (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes 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 feature in the backend.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once the changes are saved, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest configuration to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go 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, the next step is to learn how to start configuring a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series.
To keep reading, click here:
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"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
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