As we have discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress CMS platform is that you can easily add content, enhance your website, and rearrange the layout of your website without code editing skills and knowledge required.
WordPress lets you easily add, delete, and reorganize various types of content on your site’s sidebar (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme is installed on the site) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- pages on your site
- site categories
- archives
- custom menus
- links to external sites
- links to recent posts
- post comments
- clickable images
- testimonials
- surveys
- RSS feed content
- newsletter registration form
- videos
- social media sharing buttons
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial series you will learn how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
What You Need To Know First
Before we start learning how to configure widgets, it helps to first go over some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can also appear inside the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
The Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated with drag and drop ease)
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. become activated for use.
In addition, your Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily insert, activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside the Widgets section …
(Rearrange widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout using drag-and-drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If you take a 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 the above widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag and drop …
(Drag & drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar area …
As you can see, this immediately reorganizes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the support banner (2) now sits above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements with widgets to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From Your Sidebar Area
Removing widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove an active widget, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reactivate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes making certain types of information hidden to your site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, 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 …
(Toggles expand/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 …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending on which theme you have installed on your site, you’re also able to preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before making any permanent changes 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 before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do several edits to the widgets in preview mode (like inserting, 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 instantly become available on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once your changes are saved, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Since the theme you choose can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the site is coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click this link:
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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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