As we have discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, and reconfigure the layout of your site with no web coding skills required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily add, remove, and control content in your website’s sidebar (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 theme) like:
- list of pages
- site categories
- archive
- menus that display only the pages you select
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- post comments
- clickable images
- user testimonials
- survey questions & results
- RSS feed items
- newsletter registration form
- product images
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this tutorial series you will learn how to use and configure various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
Widgets – The Basics
Before configuring and using widgets, let’s first explain some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widgetized areas in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar menu, header area, and the footer area. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also be found below or above the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays all the widgets that you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag and drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately activated for use on your site.
The Widgets area also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items in the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange 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 newsletter subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WP plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features display on your site)
If we take a look inside the example site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget screen …
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 reordered in the sidebar …
This immediately reorganizes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation area, and the support banner (2) is now located above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Section
Deleting widgets from your WordPress sidebar navigation menu is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from the sidebar menu …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(How to remove your widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always restore widgets by dragging them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This includes making certain types of information hidden to site visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or information, 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggles expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, delete 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 something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizing options)
Preview Your Widgets
Depending on the theme you are using, you can also preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your site.
Widget management is a valuable 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 any changes (and avoid making errors), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize feature)
When viewing your site 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 several modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like adding, deleting 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 available on your site to visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving your changes, WordPress will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest changes to your site visitors.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install the 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 go 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, let’s configure a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
***
This is the end of section one of this tutorial on how to use Widgets.
To keep reading, click this link:
***
"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
***