As we explain in this post, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reorganize your site’s layout with no code editing skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily insert, remove, and reconfigure various types of content on your blog’s sidebar menu (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:
- list of pages
- site categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- clickable images
- testimonials
- surveys
- RSS feed items
- member login section
- videos
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this tutorial series you are going to learn how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, it helps to first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also show up below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users multiple widgetized sections)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets you have available.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and can be used for their purpose.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout by using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
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 screen …
If we rearrange the order of these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging & dropping items …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation menu …
As you can see, this immediately changes the layout of your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ graphic button (2) can now be found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from your sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove a 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
Most widgets can be customized further. This can include things like 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggling expands/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 …
(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 configurable options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on the theme you choose, you can also manage your 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.
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 your widget content will appear before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do several modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your latest configuration to your site visitors.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure various frequently-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to keep reading:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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