As we explain in this post, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site, or reorganize the layout of your site without requiring web coding skills or knowledge.
WordPress lets you easily insert, delete, and control content from your website’s sidebar navigation section (and 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:
- index of pages
- blog post categories
- post archives
- menus that display only the pages you choose
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- post comments
- clickable text ads
- quotations
- polls & surveys
- RSS content
- registration box
- product images
- social media buttons
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- 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 why widgets can make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this tutorial we explain how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we explain how to configure widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be used inside the content area …
(Many themes offer users a number of widget-ready sections)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets you can use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become active and available for use.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag & drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout of your site’s widget-enabled sections by dragging & dropping widgets.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the active widget area …
If we change the order the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of these elements around …
(Drag and drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar area …
As you can see, this instantly changes the order of items in your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) is now found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements with widgets to improve user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Menu
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from your sidebar navigation section. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or data, 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 …
(Toggle to 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 …
(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 provide users with little to no configurable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on the WP theme you are using, you’re also able to manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes 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 before publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do many modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly applied and reflected on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the new changes to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview all 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, it’s time to learn how to configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
To continue reading, click here:
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