As we have explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, and rearrange the layout of your website with no programming skills required.
WordPress allows you to easily add, remove, and rearrange content from your website’s sidebar navigation area (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:
- pages on your site
- content categories
- archives
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- text ads
- testimonials
- polls
- RSS content
- newsletter subscription form
- product catalog images
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can also display below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-ready sections)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget administration area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
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 immediately active on your site.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove things using widgets with drag and drop in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout by with drag & drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your WordPress site)
If you take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget screen …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping elements …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar area …
As you can see, this instantly changes the order of items in your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar Section
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar menu is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from the sidebar navigation section. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to your site visitors but visible 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 settings for the widget …
(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 settings …
(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 customizing options)
Widget Previews
Depending upon the WP theme you have installed on your site, you can also customize and manage your widgets 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 your 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 the widget content will appear before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(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 section in the backend.
You can do several edits and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), 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 the changes will be instantly updated and made visible on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all 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, it’s time to learn how to configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials about using Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click this link:
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
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