As we have explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your website, and reconfigure your site’s layout without web programming skills or knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, delete, and manage various blocks of content in your blog’s sidebar navigation section (and header and footer sections, depending on what theme you use) 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 you have installed) like:
- index of pages
- site categories
- post archives
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- links to your recent posts
- comments
- clickable ads
- testimonials
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed content
- opt-in subscription form
- images
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how they work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we show you how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s review some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also display in the content area …
(Many themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets area displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays all “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately available for use.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your website. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag And Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, reorder and remove widgets just by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout with drag-and-drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features display on your site)
If we were to peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features appear on the site’s sidebar menu in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets have been arranged in the back-end widget section …
Let’s now rearrange the order of these widgets in the Main Sidebar Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of the elements around …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar navigation area …
As you can see, this instantly changes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar navigation section, and the support banner (2) now sits above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout using widgets can help improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Blog Sidebar Navigation Section
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s delete the Search widget from the sidebar …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized further. This includes hiding information from users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying dimensions 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, remove your widget from the “Active Widgets” section, close the widget, or click on the triangle to collapse the widget …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending upon which WP 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 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 prior to publishing it (to avoid making errors), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes 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 section in the backend.
You can do plenty of edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and moving widgets around), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
As soon as the changes have been saved, your new updates will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since the theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how the changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to begin configuring various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
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This is the end of part one of this tutorial series.
To view Part Two, 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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