As we’ve explained in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, improve your site’s functionality, and redesign the layout of your site without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, delete, and rearrange content from your blog’s sidebar menu (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme is installed on the site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- pages on your site
- blog categories
- archived blog post entries
- customized menus
- links to resources
- links to your recent posts
- recent comments from users
- clickable images
- quotations
- polls
- RSS feed items
- member login section
- video
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, see this article:
In this tutorial we show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, let’s first cover some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in your theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also be used below or above the content area …
(Many WordPress themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
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 settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder the order of your widget-ready areas using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site’s sidebar area in the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget section …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar menu …
This immediately reorganizes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the support section (2) is now found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete a WP widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing your widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from your sidebar navigation area. 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 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, 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 give you little to no configuration options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on the WordPress theme you are using, 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 see before making any permanent changes to your site.
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 errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do several edits and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and it will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because the WordPress theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar navigation area.
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.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to start configuring a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials.
Click here to continue reading:
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