As we’ve discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or redesign the layout of your website without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, remove, and reconfigure content from your website’s sidebar area (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on your site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- website page list
- post categories
- archives
- custom menus
- links to external sites
- most read posts
- recent comments from users
- clickable ads
- customer testimonials
- poll results
- RSS content excerpts
- opt-in subscription form
- video galleries
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, let’s review some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be used below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widget sections)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become activated for use on your site.
In addition, the Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder the order of your theme’s widget-ready sections by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features appear on the site in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the back-end widget section …
Let’s now rearrange these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
As you can see, this instantly changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ image button (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar area …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from 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 …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove the 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 give you little to no configurable options)
Widget Previews
Depending on which theme you use, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything to your site.
The ability to manage widgets from your own 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 before publishing it (to avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved the changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display your new changes to your site visitors.
Since the theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install 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 complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the site is coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to begin configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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