As we have discussed in this article, there are loads of great things about choosing WordPress to build, manage and grow a website or blog. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your website, and reconfigure the site’s layout with no coding skills and knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage content from your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on the site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of your web pages
- blog categories
- archives
- menus that display only the pages you choose
- links to resources
- links to your recent posts
- comments
- image banners
- testimonials
- poll results
- content from RSS feeds
- registration box
- images
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(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 will show you how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we start configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can also display below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-ready areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets you have available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become active and available for use.
Your Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets with drag and drop in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout by with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar area in the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation section …
As you can see, this instantly changes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar navigation area, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Section
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar navigation menu …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete your WP widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions 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 the widget …
(Toggling expands/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 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)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending on which WordPress theme you choose, you’re also able to customize and manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets inside the WordPress 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 prior to publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, 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 saving changes, your new settings will automatically show on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to start configuring various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
To view Part Two, click this link:
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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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