As we have explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing tool for building and growing your website or blog is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the site’s layout without coding skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, remove, and reorganize various blocks of content on your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on your theme) 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 your theme) like:
- list of pages
- blog categories
- archived blog post entries
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to resources
- most read posts
- user comments
- clickable ad banners
- testimonials
- polls
- content from RSS feeds
- member login section
- image galleries
- social media buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, go here:
In this tutorial series we are going to show you how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s explain some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar area, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also show up below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-enabled sections)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
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. automatically become available for use on your site.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete things using widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout and order of your site’s widget-ready areas with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site appear)
If we look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
If we rearrange these widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag and drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation menu …
This instantly changes the order of items in your sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help improve your site’s user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation menu, and the ‘contact us’ graphic banner (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements with widgets to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar navigation area is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar navigation area …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always reactivate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer various settings that allow you to further configure your site features. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered 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 toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the settings for that widget …
(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 give you 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 configurable options)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending on the theme you have installed, you can also 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 to your site.
Widget management is a great feature of WordPress. You can work in preview mode inside the WordPress Theme Customizer screen (Appearance > Customize) and see how the widget content will appear prior to publishing changes (to avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do many edits, modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and it’s all done in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After your changes are saved, the new settings will automatically be displayed on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to begin configuring various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial about using WordPress widgets.
To view Part Two, click here:
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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
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