As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage your web presence is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site with no web coding knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily add, delete, and manage various types of content from your website’s sidebar area (or header and footer sections too, 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 WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- page lists
- site categories
- post archives
- customized menus
- links to resources
- links to recent posts
- user comments
- advertising banners
- testimonials
- surveys
- RSS content
- opt-in subscription form
- images
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. StumbleUpon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(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, see this article:
In this tutorial series we are going to show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Use Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s make sure that you understand some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also get added below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets you can use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated 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. become immediately active and can be used for their purpose.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Reorganize Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets using simple drag & drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout of your site’s widget-enabled areas using drag & drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your WordPress site)
Inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar area in the same order as their corresponding widgets were arranged in the active widget area …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag & drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar navigation menu …
As you can see, this instantly changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the support section (2) has been moved to the location above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar area is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar navigation menu …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your widget)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This includes 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 settings for that widget …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete 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 an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizing options)
Widget Previews
Depending upon which WordPress theme you have installed on your site, 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 your customizations before committing anything live to your website or blog.
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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do several edits and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved your changes, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because the WordPress theme you choose affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer 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 your changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to start configuring various frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
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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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