As discussed in this post, there are so many great benefits in choosing the WordPress web publishing tool to build and manage a business online. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the layout of your site with no coding skills or knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, delete, and reconfigure various blocks of content in your website’s sidebar (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you are using) 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 theme you have installed) like:
- list of pages
- blog categories
- blog post archive
- menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- comments
- clickable ads
- customer testimonials
- polls & surveys
- RSS feed content
- shopping cart forms
- image galleries
- social media buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Twitter)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we explain how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s review some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also display inside the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-ready areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become available for use on your site.
In addition, your Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and remove things using widgets using simple drag & drop in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout by using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we 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 …
Let’s now rearrange the order of these widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar navigation section …
This immediately changes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ graphic banner (2) is now placed above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Removing widgets from your sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar navigation area …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing your WordPress widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many 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.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(Toggles expand/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 provide users with little to no configuration options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configurable options)
WP Theme Customizer
Depending on the WordPress theme you use, you can also manage and customize widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits 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 prior to publishing any changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do several things to the widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once the changes are saved, 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 on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go 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 start configuring various frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials.
To continue reading, click this link:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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