As we’ve discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress web publishing application for building and managing a website or blog is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, or reconfigure your site’s layout without having code editing skills and knowledge.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, remove, and reconfigure various blocks of content from your site’s sidebar navigation area (or 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 like:
- index of pages
- blog post categories
- post archives
- customized menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- image banners
- quotations
- poll questions & results
- RSS content
- subscription form
- images
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why widgets can 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.
Using Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first make sure that you understand some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in areas in your theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar navigation section, header area, and footer. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also display below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users a number of widget-ready sections)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become available for use on your site.
In addition, the Widgets area 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 WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout and order of your widget-enabled areas with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site appear)
If you 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 …
If we reorganize these widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging and dropping items …
(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the layout of your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help improve your site’s user 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’ section (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from your sidebar navigation area is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove an active widget, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Delete 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 navigation area. You can always restore 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 site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to toggle between expanding and collapsing the item …
(Toggling expands/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 settings …
(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 configurable options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending upon the WordPress theme you use, you can also manage your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like what you have done before making any permanent changes to your website.
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 changes (to avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do several modifications and adjustments to your widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and this will all be done in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly updated and made visible on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
Once you have saved your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest configuration to your site visitors.
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 all 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, let’s start configuring various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
Click here to read the rest of this tutorial series:
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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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