As we have discussed in this post, one of the many great benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without web coding skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage content on your website’s sidebar navigation menu (and header and footer sections too, 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 the theme) like:
- page lists
- post categories
- blog post archive
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to resources
- your most popular posts
- recent comments from users
- text ads
- customer testimonials
- polls
- RSS content
- subscription form
- video thumbnails
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why widgets make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use Widgets
The Basics
Before we begin configuring and using widgets, it helps to first explain some of the basics of how to use 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 be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on your theme, widgets can also be used below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widgetized areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets you can use on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become activated for use on your site.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Reorganize Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets using simple drag and drop inside your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout of your theme’s widget-ready layout by dragging and dropping widgets.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a 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 reorganize these widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this immediately changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar, and the support banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar layout with widgets to improve your site’s user experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want to remove from your sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(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 customizable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configurable options)
Previewing Widgets
Depending upon the theme you choose, you’re also able to manage widgets without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with what you see before committing anything live to your site.
The ability to manage widgets inside the 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 prior to publishing any changes (to avoid making errors), or manage your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize feature)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer feature in the back-end.
You can do many edits and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving changes, your new updates will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial.
Click here to continue reading:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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