As we have explained in this article, there are many benefits in using the WordPress CMS platform for building and growing your business online. One of these is that WordPress makes it very easy to add content, expand your site’s functionality, or reconfigure the layout of your site without programming skills required.
WordPress allows you to quickly and easily add, remove, and rearrange various blocks of content on your site’s sidebar (and 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 WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- website page list
- content categories
- archived blog post entries
- menus
- links to resources
- links to recent posts
- user comments
- clickable text ads
- testimonials
- survey results
- RSS content
- shopping cart forms
- images
- twitter feeds
- add widgets from external sites (e.g. affiliate programs)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WP widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WP widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s functionality, go here:
In this tutorial series we explain how to use and configure a number of frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using Widgets
Basic Concepts
Before we get into configuring and using widgets, it helps to first cover some of the basics about how to use widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widgetized Layouts
Most WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized areas in the theme’s layout where you can add widgets, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer. Depending on your theme, widgets can sometimes also display below or above the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widgetized areas)
These widget-ready layouts correspond to a feature inside your Widget screen called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets you can use on your site.
The right-hand section of the window displays your “active” widgets …
(Widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping)
Available widgets can be made Active or Inactive using drag & drop.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. automatically become active.
In addition, the Widgets area includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove any widgets that you no longer want to actively display on your site. Inactive widgets retain their pre-configured settings.
Rearrange Widgets Using Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add new functionality to your site, or activate, deactivate, reorder and delete widgets just by dragging and dropping items from your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets using drag-and-drop)
You can also easily reorder your theme’s layout with drag and drop ease.
For example, take a look at the image below. In this site, the widgets have already been configured to display things on your site like:
- An opt-in form,
- A contact support button, and
- ’Click to call’ buttons from a widgetized plugin (i.e. a WordPress plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features on your site display)
If we look inside this site’s Widget area, you will see that these features correspond to the order of widgets inside the active widget section …
Let’s now reorganize the above widgets in the Widget Area by dragging and dropping some of the widgets around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widgets have now been reordered in the sidebar …
This immediately changes the order of items in the sidebar.
Reorganizing sidebar elements using widgets can help to improve your site’s visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now the first item on the sidebar navigation section, and the ‘contact us’ banner (2) now sits above the newsletter subscription form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar elements with widgets to improve visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The WordPress Sidebar
Deleting widgets from the sidebar is very easy.
For example, let’s show you how to remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(WordPress Search widget)
To remove an active widget, either expand the widget settings and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your 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 other widgets you want removed from your sidebar. You can always reinstate a widget by dragging it back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Many widgets offer additional options that allow you to further customize them. This can include things like making certain types of information hidden to visitors but visible to registered users, displaying additional forms, fields, or data, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget expands the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(Toggles 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 settings …
(Widget settings)
Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options, or they may only allow you to add something like an optional title …
(Some widgets provide users with little to no configurable options)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending upon the WordPress theme you are using, you can also 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 website or blog.
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 before publishing any changes (to avoid making mistakes), or change your widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(Edit widgets in the Customize feature)
If you need to make changes to your site while viewing the frontend, just click on the Customize link …
(Toolbar Customize Link)
This will bring you to the Customizer area in the backend.
You can do a number of edits in preview mode (like inserting, deleting and reorganizing your widgets), and see all changes in real time. If you are happy with the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and your changes will then be instantly updated and made visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once you have saved your changes, the new settings will automatically be displayed on your site.
Since WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend that you install your theme first before configuring widgets.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer 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 begin configuring various commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
***
This is the end of part 1 of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to keep reading:
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
***