As we have discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage and grow your web presence is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or redesign the layout of your website with no web coding skills required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and reorganize various types of content in your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on your theme) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of your web pages
- blog post categories
- archive
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- most popular posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to posts
- image banners
- quotations
- poll results
- RSS feed content
- registration box
- image galleries
- social media buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we explain how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first cover some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also be used below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widgetized areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets you have available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become available for use on your site.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the order and layout of your theme’s widget-ready sections with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features display on your site)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site’s sidebar section in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the active widget screen …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar area is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove 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 area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar navigation area. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the settings for the widget …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to remove your 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizable options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on which WP theme you use, you’re also able to manage and customize widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website or blog.
Widget management 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 (to avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do several edits to the widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest configuration to your site visitors.
Since the theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar area.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s begin configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section one of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to keep reading:
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