As discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or change the layout of your website with no web coding knowledge required.
WordPress lets you easily insert, delete, and manage various blocks of content in your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) 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:
- nested page lists
- blog post categories
- archives
- menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- post comments
- clickable text ads
- user testimonials
- polls
- RSS content excerpts
- newsletter subscription form
- video thumbnails
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we teach you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
The Basics
Before configuring and using widgets, it helps to first review some of the basic concepts about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in your 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 also be added in the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widgetized areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become active and available for use.
The Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove things using widgets by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the order and layout of your website’s widgetized sections using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If you take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget area …
Let’s now change the order the above widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) is found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar section 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, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from your sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized. This includes making certain types of information hidden to 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 your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(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 give you little to no customizable options)
Widget Previews
Depending upon which theme you are using, you’re also able to customize your widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your website.
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 the widget content will appear before publishing any changes you’ve made (and avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do plenty of things to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and it will all be done in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see the site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to start configuring various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
To view Part 2, click here:
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