As discussed in this post, there are lots of great things about using the WordPress web publishing software for building and managing your digital presence. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your website’s functionality, and reconfigure the site’s layout with no code editing skills required.

WordPress gives you the ability to easily insert, delete, and reorganize various types of content from your site’s sidebar navigation area (and header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.

Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:

• page lists
• blog categories
• archived published posts
• menus displaying only selected pages
• links to external sites
• posts that you want to promote
• recent comments from users
• clickable ad banners
• quotations
• polls
• content from RSS feeds
• newsletter registration form
• images
• social media sharing buttons
• display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
• administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)

(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)

To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and why widgets can make managing your site easier, see this article:

• Using WordPress: Understanding Widgets

In this tutorial we show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.

How To Use Widgets

Widgets – The Basics

Before we start configuring and using widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basics of using widgets:

Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts

Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme installed on your site, widgets can sometimes also be found in the content area …

(Many themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)

These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …

(Widget Areas)

Widgets Panel

The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.

On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …

(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)

Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the panel.

Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become active and available for use.

Your Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.

Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop

You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets area …

(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)

You can also easily reconfigure the order and layout of your widgetized areas by using drag-and-drop.

For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:

1. A newsletter opt-in form,
2. A click for support button, and
3. ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …

(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)

If we take a peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features appear on the site’s sidebar section in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the back-end widget area …

Let’s now rearrange the above widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag-and-drop …

(Drag-and-drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)

The widget features have now been reorganized in your sidebar …

This instantly changes the layout of the site’s 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 the first item on the sidebar, and the support graphic button (2) is now located above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …

(Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help improve visitor experience)

Removing Widgets From The Sidebar

Deleting widgets from your sidebar navigation section is very easy.

For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation area …

(WordPress Search widget)

To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …

(How to delete a WordPress widget)

Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …

(How to remove your widgets)

Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reactivate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.

Widget Settings

Many widgets can be further customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes 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 the widget …

(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 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 provide users with little to no configurable options)

Widget Customizer Section

Depending upon which theme you use, you’re also able to customize and manage 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 it (to avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.

(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)

If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …

(Toolbar Customize Link)

This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.

You can do many modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and it will all be done in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly updated and made visible on your site to visitors.

(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)

After saving changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.

Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install the 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, the next step is to configure a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.

***

This is the end of part one of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.

To continue reading, click this link:

• How To Use WordPress Widgets – Part 2

***

***