As we have explained in this post, one of the many benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, enhance your site, or rearrange the layout of your site without having web coding skills.
WordPress lets you quickly and easily add, delete, and reconfigure content on your blog’s sidebar section (or header and footer sections, depending on your theme) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- pages on your site
- blog categories
- post archives
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to resources
- posts that you want to promote
- post comments
- clickable images
- user testimonials
- survey results
- content from RSS feeds
- opt-in subscription form
- video galleries
- Facebook feeds
- display widgets from other sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(Widgets help make managing and using WordPress easier)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how they work and why they make managing your site easier, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial series we will show you how to use and configure various commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
Widgets – Basic Concepts
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s cover some of the basics of how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can be used, such as the sidebar navigation menu, header area, and the footer area. Depending on your theme, widgets can also show up in the content area …
(Many WP themes offer users a number of widgetized areas)
These widgetized sections correspond to a feature inside the Widget administration screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets panel displays a list of all the widgets that are available.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can see your “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets with drag & drop ease)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the screen.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. become immediately active and can be used to perform their function on your site.
In addition, your Widgets screen includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want actively displayed on your site. Inactive widgets do not lose their pre-configured settings.
Reorganize WordPress Widgets With Drag & Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets by dragging and dropping items from the Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily rearrange the layout and order of your widget-ready areas with drag and drop ease.
For example, in the image below, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- A newsletter opt-in form,
- A click for support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a plugin that adds an accompanying widget to your site) …
(Widgets control how certain features display on your site)
If you 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 area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Active Widget Area using drag & drop …
(Drag & drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in your sidebar …
This instantly reorganizes the layout of the site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar layout with widgets can help improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation section, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) is found above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout with widgets to improve user experience)
Deleting Widgets From Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Removing widgets from the sidebar is really easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from the sidebar menu …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, you can either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(Deleting a widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets area …
(Remove widgets)
Repeat this process for all widgets you want removed from the sidebar. You can always reinstate widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets provide additional options that allow you to further configure them. 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 widget’s settings …
(Toggling expands/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 …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets offer little to no configurable options, or they may only allow you to add an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no customizable options)
Widget Customizer Section
Depending upon the theme you are using, you can also customize and manage your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before committing anything to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets from the WordPress dashboard 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 prior to publishing changes (and avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets live in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This brings you to the Customizer section in the back-end.
You can do lots of edits, modifications and adjustments to widgets in preview mode (like adding, removing and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you like what you’ve done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site.
(Widget management – configure widgets on the fly!)
After saving the changes, the new updates will automatically be added to your site.
Since the WordPress theme you choose 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 your changes. This saves you from having to keep two browsers open while you complete this tutorial.
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, it’s time to learn how to begin configuring a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
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This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial on using Widgets.
To view Part 2, click this link:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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