As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing application for building and managing a business online is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without having programming skills.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily insert, remove, and control various types of content from your blog’s sidebar 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 like:
- index of pages
- content categories
- archive
- customized menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- recent comments
- text ads
- quotations
- surveys
- content from RSS feeds
- registration box
- product images
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial series you are going to learn how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we start configuring and using widgets, let’s first review some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on the theme, widgets can also display below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Screen
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that are available.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become available for use.
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 do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag & Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag & 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 show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget section …
Let’s now reorganize these widgets in the Widget Area using drag-and-drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reordered in your sidebar area …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of your site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation area, and the support image button (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout using widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar Menu
Deleting widgets from your sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation section …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing your widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want to remove from the sidebar area. You can always reactivate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete your 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 configurable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizing options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending on which WordPress theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before committing anything to your site.
The ability to manage widgets from your own 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 prior to publishing any changes you’ve made (to avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
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 screen in the backend.
You can do several modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like 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!)
Once you have saved the changes, your new updates will automatically show on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This will save 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 learn how to begin configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this series of tutorials about how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to read the rest of this tutorial series:
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