As we’ve explained in this article, there are lots of benefits in using the WordPress CMS platform for building and growing your web site. One of these is that you can easily add content, enhance your site, or reconfigure the layout of your website without the need to have coding skills.
WordPress lets you easily insert, remove, and control content on your blog’s sidebar (or header and footer sections too, depending on what theme you use) using widgets.
Once you know how to use widgets, you can easily add things to your site like:
- list of pages
- blog categories
- blog post archive
- menus that display only selected pages
- links to external sites
- posts that you want to promote
- comments
- advertising banners
- quotations
- surveys & polls
- content from RSS feeds
- newsletter subscription form
- images
- twitter feeds
- display widgets from external sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- 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 why they make managing your site easier, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we will show you how to use and configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Using WordPress Widgets
The Basics
Before we explain how to configure widgets, let’s first go over some of the basics of using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Areas
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widget-ready sections in your theme’s layout where you can use widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can also show up in the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widgetized sections)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside your Widget management screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Your Widgets Panel
The Widgets screen displays a list of all the widgets that you currently have available.
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 using drag-and-drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become available for use on your site.
In addition, your 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 settings.
Rearrange WordPress Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add, activate, deactivate, rearrange and delete widgets with drag & drop in your Widgets section …
(Rearrange your site’s widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reconfigure your theme’s layout using drag-and-drop.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this example site, the widgets have already been configured to display the following to visitors:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control how certain features appear on your site)
Looking inside the Widget area, you would see that the front end features display on the site’s sidebar menu in exactly the same order as they have been arranged in the active widget area …
If we change the order these widgets in the Active Widget Area by dragging and dropping some things around …
(Drag and drop to rearrange widgets in your widget area)
The widgets have now been reorganized in the sidebar …
As you can see, this instantly changes the order of items in your site’s sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements with widgets can improve user experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ feature (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation menu, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) has been moved to the spot above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearranging sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve visitor experience)
Removing Widgets From The Sidebar Navigation Area
Removing widgets from your WordPress sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to delete the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To remove a widget from an active Widget area, you can either expand the widget and click the Delete link …
(Deleting your WordPress widgets)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets section and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Remove your widget)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar menu. You can always reactivate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets can be customized further. This includes 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 may require or offer no customization, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets offer little to no configurable options)
Previewing Widgets
Depending on which theme you have installed on your site, you can also manage and customize widgets 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 site.
The ability to manage widgets from your dashboard is a valuable 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 before publishing any changes (and avoid making errors), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes in the Customize section)
If you need to make changes to the site while viewing the front-end, just click on the Customize link …
(Customize your site quickly)
This will bring you to the Customizer section in the backend.
You can do many edits to widgets in preview mode (like adding, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with what you have done, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become available on your site.
(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 WordPress theme you use tend to affect 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 go through this tutorial (one to work in and one to check how your changes are coming along).
Now that you know the basics of using widgets, the next step is to start configuring a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
***
This is the end of part one of this tutorial.
Click here to keep reading:
***
"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
***