As we explain in this article, there are many great things about using the WordPress CMS platform for building and managing your business online. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your website without the need to have programming skills or knowledge.
WordPress gives you the ability to quickly and easily add, remove, and rearrange content on your website’s sidebar navigation section (or header and footer sections too, 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 the WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- nested list of your web pages
- content categories
- blog post archive
- menus displaying only selected pages
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- recent comments from users
- clickable ad banners
- user testimonials
- survey questions & results
- content from RSS feeds
- subscriber form
- videos
- social media sharing buttons
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this tutorial we will show you how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
The Basics
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, let’s go over some of the basic concepts of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar navigation area, header area, and footer sections. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also be added in the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widgetized sections)
These widget-ready sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays all the widgets that you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active.
Your Widgets panel also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want on your website. Inactive widgets do not lose their settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag And Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove things using widgets using drag and drop in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag & drop)
You can also easily reconfigure the layout and order of your website’s widget-enabled sections using drag and drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to show the following:
- A subscription form,
- A contact support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your WordPress site)
If you were to peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar menu in the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the active widget area …
If we rearrange the order of these widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of the items around …
(Drag-and-drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the layout of the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation menu, and the support image banner (2) can now be found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganize sidebar elements with widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from your sidebar section …
(WordPress Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from your sidebar menu. You can always restore a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer a number of settings that allow you to further customize things. This can include things like hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the settings for the widget …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to 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 offer little to no customization)
Previewing Your Widgets
Depending upon the theme you are using, you can also manage and customize your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before committing anything to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets inside the 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 before publishing changes (to avoid making mistakes), or configure widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the back-end.
You can do many edits to widgets in preview mode (like adding, 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 the changes will then be instantly updated and reflected on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, the new settings will automatically show on your site.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to see your site the way your visitors will see it).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to start configuring various frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
***
This is the end of part 1 of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
Click on this link to access Part 2:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com
***