As we explain in this post, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, improve your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your website without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to easily add, delete, and reorganize various types of content from your website’s sidebar section (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) 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:
- site pages
- post categories
- archives
- custom menus
- links to external sites
- links to your recent posts
- post comments
- advertising banners
- testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS content
- subscriber form
- images
- social media buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s first cover some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme, widgets can also be used in the content area …
(Many WordPress themes offer users multiple widget-ready sections)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active and available for use on your site.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder the layout and order of your site’s widget-ready areas with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If we look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar section …
As you can see, this immediately changes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support graphic button (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Section
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from the sidebar navigation area …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(How to remove a WordPress widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from your sidebar area. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets offer additional options that allow you to further configure them. This can include things like 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 that widget …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no configuration options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customization)
Widget Previews
Depending upon which WordPress theme you have installed on your site, you can also manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before committing anything to your website.
The ability to manage widgets from within your own 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 before publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making mistakes), or manage your 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 …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do lots of edits to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and it 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 – work in preview mode)
As soon as your changes are saved, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display the new configuration to your site visitors.
Because 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 Customizer feature to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to start configuring various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to continue:
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