As we have discussed in this post, one of the many benefits of choosing the WordPress web publishing tool to build and grow a web site is that you can easily add content, expand your website’s functionality, and reconfigure the site’s layout with no web programming skills required.
WordPress allows you to easily insert, delete, and manage various types of content from your website’s sidebar navigation area (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 WordPress theme you have installed) like:
- page lists
- blog categories
- archive
- menus
- links to external sites
- most popular posts
- excerpts of recent comments added to your posts
- clickable images
- client testimonials
- surveys & polls
- RSS content excerpts
- customers login section
- videos
- Facebook feeds
- add widgets from other sites (e.g. Facebook friends)
- administrative forms (e.g. login, register, etc.)
(WordPress widgets help make managing and using WordPress easy)
To learn more about what WordPress widgets are, how widgets work and how using widgets can help you expand your site’s capabilities, see this article:
In this step-by-step tutorial we show you how to use and configure various frequently-used widgets in WordPress.
Using WordPress Widgets
What You Need To Know First
Before we start configuring and using widgets, let’s explain some of the basics about using widgets:
Most WordPress Themes Support Widget-Ready Areas
Many WordPress themes support widgets and provide built-in widgetized sections in your theme’s layout where widgets can appear, such as the sidebar, header area, and footer sections. Depending on what theme you are using, widgets can sometimes also be used in the content area …
(Many themes offer users multiple widget-enabled areas)
These widget-ready areas correspond to a feature inside the Widget panel called “Widget Areas” …
(Widget Areas)
Widgets Panel
The Widgets area displays a list of all the widgets that are currently available for use on your site.
The right-hand section of the screen displays the “active” widgets …
(Activate or deactivate widgets by dragging and dropping)
Available widgets can be activated or deactivated by dragging & dropping items to different areas of the widgets panel.
Widgets dragged from the Available Widgets section to widget areas like your sidebar, footer, etc. immediately become available for use.
The Widgets screen also includes an Inactive Widgets section that lets you remove widgets that you no longer want to use on your site. Inactive widgets retain their settings.
Rearrange Widgets With Drag-And-Drop
You can easily add functionality to your site, and activate, deactivate, rearrange and remove widgets by dragging and dropping items inside your Widgets area …
(Rearrange widgets on your WordPress site using drag & drop)
You can also easily reorder 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 things on your site like:
- A subscription form,
- A click for support banner, and
- ’Click to call’ feature from a widgetized WordPress plugin (i.e. a plugin with an accompanying widget) …
(Widgets control the order certain features appear on your site)
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 area …
If we reorganize the above widgets in the Sidebar Widget Area by dragging & dropping some of these items around …
(Drag-and-drop to rearrange widgets in the widget area)
The widget features have now been reorganized in the sidebar menu …
This immediately changes the layout of the sidebar.
Rearranging sidebar layout with widgets can help to improve visitor experience.
Note in the screenshot below that the ‘click to call’ function (3) is now at the top of the sidebar, and the ‘contact us’ section (2) is now placed above the newsletter opt-in form (1) …
(Rearrange sidebar layout using widgets to improve your site’s visitor experience)
Deleting Widgets From The Sidebar
Removing widgets from the sidebar navigation menu is very easy.
For example, let’s remove the Search widget from your sidebar …
(Search widget)
To delete an active widget, either open up the widget and click the Delete link …
(How to delete your widget)
Or just drag the widget out of the Active Widgets area and into the Inactive Widgets section …
(Removing widgets)
Repeat this process for any widgets you want to remove from the sidebar. You can always restore widgets by moving them back into the active widgets area.
Widget Settings
Most widgets can be customized. This includes hiding information from users (but allowing access to registered users), displaying additional forms, fields, or information, specifying sizes of sidebar images, videos, etc.
Clicking on the little triangle in the corner of a widget toggles between expanding and collapsing the item and displays the settings for the widget …
(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 provide users with little to no customization)
Customize Widgets Section
Depending upon the theme you have installed, you’re also able to manage and customize your widgets without actually making changes to your site. This way, you can be sure that you are happy with your customizations before making any permanent changes to your website or blog.
The ability to manage widgets from your 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 any changes (to avoid making mistakes), or manage widgets on the fly using the Widget editor area.
(preview widget changes live in the Customize section)
Wherever you are on the front-end just calick the Customize link in the toolbar …
(Customize link in the toolbar)
This will bring you to the Customizer screen in the back-end.
You can do several edits, modifications and adjustments in preview mode (like inserting, removing and moving widgets around), and it will all be done in real time. If you like the results, click the “Save and Publish” button and the changes will instantly become visible to your site visitors.
(Widget management – work in preview mode)
Once your changes have been saved, all changes made to widgets will be automatically updated.
Because WordPress Themes can display elements differently on your site, we recommend installing your theme first before configuring widgets on the sidebar.
Also, remember to use the WordPress Customizer to preview all changes. This saves 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 begin configuring various commonly-used WordPress widgets.
***
This is the end of section 1 of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
Click here to read Part Two:
***
"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
***