As discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, and rearrange your site’s layout with no code editing skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily add, delete, and manage content in your blog’s sidebar section (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme is installed on your site) 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:
- list of your web pages
- categories
- archive
- custom page menus
- links to resources
- most read posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to posts
- image banners
- quotations
- poll questions & results
- RSS feed content
- opt-in subscription form
- product catalog images
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. Amazon)
- 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, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we explain how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Use WordPress Widgets
The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, it helps to first review some of the basic concepts about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in sections in the theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar area, header area, and footer sections. Depending on the theme, widgets can also be added below or above the content area …
(Many themes provide multiple widget-ready sections)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets section displays a list of all the widgets that can be used on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging-and-dropping items to different sections of the widgets screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become available for use on your site.
In addition, the Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets area …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag and drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout using drag & drop.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support banner, and
- A ‘click to call’ function from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
If you could peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar area in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the back-end widget area …
Let’s now rearrange the order of these widgets in the Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag and drop widgets in the widget area to rearrange their order)
The widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This instantly changes the order of items in your sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar area, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Removing widgets from your sidebar area is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from the sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and drop it into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Removing a WP widget)
Repeat this process for any other widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This can include things like hiding information from users (but allowing access 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 …
(Toggling expands/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, click Delete to delete 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 customization, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customization)
Previewing Widgets
Depending on which theme you choose, you can also preview any changes live without making actual changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like the customized edits before making any permanent changes to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets from within your 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 any changes you’ve made (and avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes 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 your site quickly)
This brings you to the Customizer feature in the backend.
You can do many edits and adjustments in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and everything is done in real time. If you like what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will be instantly applied and reflected on your site.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved your changes, your new configuration will automatically be added to your site.
Because the WordPress theme you use determines how elements display on your site, we recommend installing the theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature 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 check how your site is coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, let’s configure various frequently-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this series of tutorials about using Widgets.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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"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
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