As we’ve discussed in this article, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and change the layout of your website without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress lets you easily insert, remove, and control various blocks of content on your blog’s sidebar menu (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme you use) 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 your theme) like:
- site pages
- content categories
- archive
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- recent comments from users
- advertisements
- quotations
- survey questions & results
- RSS feed items
- subscription form
- product catalog images
- social media buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this tutorial we explain how to use and configure a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be found inside the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide multiple widgetized sections)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that you currently have available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become active on your site.
In addition, the Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout 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 contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site’s sidebar menu in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the backend widget section …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of the items around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support banner (2) is now located above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout using widgets to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar navigation menu. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be further customized. 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.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to expand the item …
(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 …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configuration options)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending on which theme you choose, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with what you have done before committing anything to your website.
The ability to manage widgets inside the 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 any changes you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets live 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 area in the backend.
You can do many things to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), and this will all be done in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available to your site visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, the new settings 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 on the sidebar.
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, the next step is to configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
Click here 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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