As we discuss in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, or reorganize the layout of your website without the need to have code editing skills and knowledge.
WordPress lets you easily insert, remove, and reconfigure content in your website’s sidebar area (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 like:
- site pages
- categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- image banners
- customer testimonials
- polls & surveys
- RSS feed content
- subscriber form
- product catalog images
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Twitter)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this tutorial we will show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s go over some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar navigation menu, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can also display inside the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widgetized sections)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the window displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become active on your site.
In addition, the Widgets panel includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout of your widget-ready layout by with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as they have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
Let’s now change the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the items around …
(Drag and drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately changes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation area, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) now sits above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section
Removing widgets from the sidebar area is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from the sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar area. You can always reactivate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets offer additional options that allow you to further configure things. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, 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 configurable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options)
Preview Widgets
Depending upon which WordPress theme you are using, you can also manage widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before making any permanent changes to your website.
The ability to manage widgets inside your own WP dashboard is a great 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 errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(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 will bring you to the Customizer screen in the backend.
You can do many edits to the widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved the changes, your new configuration will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since 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 Customizer feature to preview your 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 your site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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