As we explain in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or redesign the layout of your website with no web coding skills required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, remove, and reconfigure various blocks of content from your website’s sidebar (or 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 the theme) like:
- pages on your website
- site categories
- archives
- menus
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- recent comments
- advertising banners
- client testimonials
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed items
- shopping cart forms
- videos
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Twitter)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why widgets make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s explain some of the basic concepts of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also be found inside the content area …
(Many WP themes provide multiple widget-enabled sections)
These widgetized layouts correspond to a feature inside the Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets you can use on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets 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 the sidebar, footer, etc. become activated for use.
In addition, your Widgets screen 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.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- An opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’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 on your site appear)
If we take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features display on the site’s sidebar menu in the same order as their corresponding widgets are arranged in the active widget section …
If we rearrange the order of the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping some things around …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar menu …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can improve your site’s visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The Sidebar Navigation Menu
Deleting widgets from the sidebar navigation menu is really easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting a WordPress widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from your sidebar navigation section. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the widget’s settings …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove the widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets give you little to no customization, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizing options)
Theme Customizer
Depending upon which theme you choose, you’re also able to preview any changes live without making actual 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 inside your WordPress dashboard 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 before publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do many modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and everything is done in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will then be instantly updated and made visible on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once your changes are saved, the new settings will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see your site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
***
This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***