As we explain in this article, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reorganize the layout of your website without requiring code editing skills.
WordPress lets you easily add, delete, and manage various types of content in your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, 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:
- list of pages
- blog categories
- blog post archive
- custom page menus
- links to external sites
- most read posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to your posts
- clickable ads
- quotations
- polls
- RSS feed items
- subscription form
- videos
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets 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 we show you how to use and configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar menu, 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 WordPress themes provide a number of widget areas)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that can be used 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 & dropping items to different areas of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become available for use.
The 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 do not lose their settings.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily rearrange your theme’s layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ section from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your WordPress site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features display on the site in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the backend widget area …
Let’s now change the order the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the items around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now first the sidebar navigation area, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements using widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Deleting widgets from your sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar area. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be further customized. This can include things like hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the widget’s settings …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, 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 configuration options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no customizing options)
Preview Widgets
Depending upon the theme you are using, you can also customize your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before committing anything live to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets from the 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 before publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do lots of modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and it will all be done in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once the changes have been saved, your new configuration will automatically be displayed on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar area.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click here:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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