As we’ve explained in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage your website or blog is that you can easily add content, enhance your site’s functionality, or change the layout of your website without web coding knowledge required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily insert, remove, and reorganize content on your website’s sidebar navigation menu (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you are using) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- pages on your website
- site categories
- archived posts
- custom menus
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- user comments
- clickable ads
- quotations
- polls & surveys
- RSS content
- registration box
- product catalog images
- social media share buttons
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series you are going to learn how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before configuring and using widgets, it helps to first make sure that you understand some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in sections in the theme’s layout where widgets can be added to, such as the sidebar section, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can sometimes also be used inside the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widgetized areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays all the widgets that can be used on your site.
On the right-hand side of the window, you can see the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become active on your site.
In addition, the Widgets panel includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items in your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder the layout of your website’s widgetized layout using drag and drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A newsletter subscription form,
- A click for support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your site)
If you look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features appear on the site’s sidebar area in exactly the same order as their corresponding widgets are arranged in the active widget area …
If we rearrange these widgets in the Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of these items around …
(Drag and drop widgets in your widget area to rearrange their order)
The widget features have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This instantly reorganizes the order of items in the site’s sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now first the sidebar navigation menu, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) can now be found above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve your site’s user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To delete a widget from an active Widget area, either open up the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Delete your WP widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar navigation area. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets provide various options that allow you to further configure these. This includes making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered 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 expand the item …
(Toggle to 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 give you little to no customizing options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets give you little to no customizing options)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending on which theme you have installed, you can also manage and customize widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before making any permanent changes to your site.
The ability to manage widgets inside your own dashboard 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 (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
When viewing your site on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do several things to widgets in preview mode (like inserting, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will instantly become available on the blog’s frontend.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving your changes, your new settings will automatically be added to your site.
Since the theme you use can affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install the theme first before configuring widgets on your sidebar.
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.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to start configuring a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part one of this series of tutorials about how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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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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