As we have explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress lets you easily insert, remove, and reorganize various blocks of content in your website’s sidebar navigation menu (or 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 like:
- pages on your website
- blog post categories
- archives
- menus that display only the pages you choose
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- user comments
- advertising banners
- quotations
- survey questions & results
- RSS content
- newsletter subscription form
- 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 widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, see this article:
In this tutorial we teach you how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, 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 themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets using drag and drop)
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. become immediately active.
Your Widgets screen also 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 Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
If you 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 …
Let’s now rearrange the above widgets in the Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar navigation menu …
This immediately changes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can improve user 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 user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing a widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar navigation menu. You can always restore widgets by dragging them 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 data, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the widget’s settings …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget settings …
(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 provide users with little to no customizing options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on which theme you choose, you’re also able to manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with what you see before committing anything live to your website.
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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing any changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do a number of modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will then be instantly updated and made visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved the changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since the WordPress theme you choose determines how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets.
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 (one to work in and one to see the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to begin configuring various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
Click here to keep reading:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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