As we’ve discussed in this article, one of the many benefits of using WordPress to manage and grow your website or blog is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality, and change the layout of your site without web coding skills required.
WordPress gives you the ability to easily insert, remove, and manage various blocks of content on your website’s sidebar navigation section (or header and footer sections, depending on what theme you have installed) 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
- post categories
- archived blog post entries
- menus
- links to resources
- links to your recent posts
- post comments
- text ads
- testimonials
- polls & surveys
- RSS feed items
- newsletter subscription form
- product images
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Twitter)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand the functionality of your website, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial we explain how to use and configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Using Widgets In WordPress
Widgets – The Basics
Before we show you how to configure widgets, let’s make sure that you understand some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide areas in the theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on the theme, widgets can also display in the content area …
(Many WP themes provide a number of widget-enabled areas)
These widgetized areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget management area called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Screen
The Widgets screen displays all the widgets that you currently have available.
The right-hand section of the screen displays your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like the sidebar, footer, etc. instantly become available for use.
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 do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure 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 subscription form,
- A contact support button, and
- A ‘click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features on your site display)
If you take a peek inside the Widget area, you would see that the front-end features appear on the site’s sidebar section in exactly the same order as they were arranged in the active widget area …
Let’s now change the order 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 widgets have now been reorganized in your sidebar …
This immediately changes the layout of the 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, and the support image banner (2) has been moved to the place above the newsletter sign-up form (1) …
(Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar Navigation Area
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to 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 area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove WordPress widgets)
Repeat this process for any other 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 can be customized. This can include things like 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.
Click on the little triangle in the corner of a widget to display the settings for that widget …
(Toggle to expand/collapse widget settings)
When the widget expands, you can change and save your settings, remove the 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 give you little to no customizable options)
Theme Customizer
Depending on the theme you use, you’re also able to preview any changes live without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you like your customizations before committing anything live to your site.
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 your widget content will appear prior to publishing it (to avoid making mistakes), or change widgets on the fly using the Widget editor screen.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do many modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and it will all be done in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will be instantly updated and reflected on the site’s frontend.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
After saving changes, your site will automatically update the widget settings and display the latest configuration to your site visitors.
Because the theme you use affect how elements display on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar area.
Also, remember to use the Customizer feature to preview your changes. This will save you from having to keep two browsers open while you work through this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to learn how to configure a number of commonly-used sidebar widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial series about how to use Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click this link:
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
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