What Is a Widget? Everything to Know About WordPress Widgets

For people who work in company website design or related fields, website you are probably already familiar with open-source platforms WordPress. If you use WordPress, you have surely heard the word Widget but may not know what it means or what role it plays. If that sounds like you, this article explains what a WordPress Widget is and collects what you need to know about Widget WordPress from us below, so you get a detailed answer.

What is a widget?

A Widget, or WordPress Widget in full, is a tool system in wordpress that lets you add new content and define categories in posts. It then shows the newest posts in bars so readers can find and follow posts easily.

Widgets play a big role in WordPress web design. They make building and using a website on this platform easier and simpler. Users can also link their website to social media pages popular today by installing a plugin whose widgets connect to that social network.

Using a widget is fairly simple. You just drag and drop the widget into a certain area of WordPress, usually called the widget area. The steps for creating a widget are covered in more detail later in this article.

Popular widgets in WordPress

• Recent Posts Widget: A widget can show all of those posts as thumbnail images, along with one of the images inside your post.
• Category Posts Widgets: They show recent posts as a specific post category. You can set the post titles to display as a list, or show only the excerpt and the post thumbnail.
• Google Maps Widget: This feature shows a Google map in the widget.
• YouTube Channel Gallery: This feature displays videos in a neat, easy-to-view grid. It does not take up much space on your site, yet it makes your website look far more interesting and distinctive.
• Date and Time Widget: As you can tell, this widget deals with dates and times, so you can see the date and time on your website easily and conveniently. You can set the time, the date format, the font, and a custom background color.

Managing widgets in WordPress

In WordPress, every theme comes with default widgets. Users can customize them by adding or removing widgets for their own purposes. To see the widgets you currently have, click Appearance and choose Widgets

The layout and arrangement of widgets differ from theme to theme. In general, though, a widget area has 3 main parts: Available Widgets (Available Widgets), Primary Widget Area (Primary Widget Area), and Inactive Widgets (Inactive Widgets).

What are Available Widgets?

Available Widgets, also called default widgets, are the widgets your theme already provides. Depending on your needs, you can remove them or move them to a suitable position.

WordPress has the following default widgets:

• Archive: shows posts from the month.
• Audio: shows a music player in WordPress.
• Calendar: a calendar display.
• Categories:  a list of categories.
• Gallery: an image gallery.
• Image: uploads a single image.
• Meta: shows site admin login, RSS, and WordPress.org links.
• Navigation Menu: creates a navigation menu.
• Pages: creates a list of pages.
• Recent Comment: shows the latest comments on your WordPress site.
• Recent Post: shows the newest posts on WordPress.
• RSS: displays an RSS or Atom feed.
• Search: a search bar.
• Tag Cloud: where post tags are displayed
• Videos: a place for video links from major video providers.

In addition, paid themes come with a wider and more varied set of widgets. Besides the built-in widgets, you can add new widgets to your website to suit your needs and purposes.

What is the Primary Widget Area?

WordPress has a dedicated area for widgets. This area is usually on the right (sidebar) or at the bottom of the page (footer). In some special cases, widgets sit on the left side of the page, and the main content and posts sit on the right.

In practice there is no fixed rule for arranging widgets. You can place a widget anywhere you like. For example, if your theme allows 3 widget positions, you can put a widget in any one of those 3.

What are Inactive Widgets?

Once a WordPress widget has been added to your website, you need to put it in this area if you want to keep using it. If you want to use it again, just drag the widget into the position you want, with no need to create a new one.

For example, fanpage, when you create a widget for it, you have to set a link, a height and a width. If you move it into the Inactive Widgets area, you will not need to set those details again next time, which saves you time and effort.

Benefits of widgets for WordPress

• It speeds up changes to your website layout: by adding or removing widgets, you set up your site the way you want without any complicated coding.
• It makes your website look more professional and improves the user experience. Widgets help organize your site in a systematic, logical and creative way. Some websites use widgets that match what visitors need, such as post search, new posts, a contact phone number, visitor counts, and so on.
• It simplifies managing widget features: setting up and using widgets well helps site managers track and run the site more effectively.

How to use widgets in WordPress

To find the widgets you own, go to Appearance in the admin panel and click Widgets. This section shows the default widgets that are already there, such as recent posts, archives and categories, plus any widgets that came with your theme.

To create a new widget, you need to install a new plugin or use plugins already available in WordPress. Below are the most basic steps for using widgets:

• Add a new widget to WordPress
• Delete a WordPress widget
• Add a widget to the sidebar
• Adjust the order of widgets

Add a new widget to WordPress

Follow these 4 steps to add a new widget to WordPress

1. In the admin area, log in to the WordPress dashboard .
2. Under Appearance, choose Widgets.
3. Add a new widget by dragging and dropping it to the position you want. Depending on your needs, you can place a widget on the left, on the right or at the bottom of the page. If the WordPress widget is a video, you can upload the video directly to the site or paste in a link.
4. There is also another good way to add a new widget in WordPress, using the Customize directly. To use this feature, go to Appearance on the page wp-admin or the button Customize on the website (after logging in with an admin account).

Delete a WordPress widget

Removing a widget from the sidebar is also quite simple. Here are 2 ways to do it:

• Method 1: Drag the widget you want to remove out of the sidebar and drop it into the existing widget area.
• Method 2: Click the title of the widget you want to remove to expand it, then choose delete.

After you delete a widget, you can use it again at any time. Just drag it back from either the Available or the Inactive area.

Add a WordPress widget to the sidebar

There are several ways to add a widget to a widget area in your WordPress theme. The simplest and fastest is to drag and drop it into the area.

Another way is to use the list of widget areas that WordPress shows where you can set up widgets. Pick the area you want to add a widget to, click the add widget button, and you are done.

Each widget has a built-in add button. Click it to go to the screen where you can easily pick the sidebar or position you want for the widget.

You can also add a widget through live preview by going to Appearance » Customize.

Adjust the order of widgets

Once the widget is in the right area, you can change its up and down order by dragging it up or down

What if the widget you want is not available?

Sometimes the widget you want is not among the available widgets. In that case, search for and install a plugin that provides it. If you cannot find it with a Vietnamese keyword, try searching in English. You can also use Google to translate and then copy the term. What matters in the end is that you get what you need.

Plugins for creating WordPress widgets

In fact, many WordPress plugins help you create widgets. Here are some you can consider:

• Flexible Posts Widget
• Better Recent Posts Widgets Pro
• Genesis Featured Widget Amplified
• Advanced Random Posts Widget

Conclusion

To sum up, Widget WordPress are flexible and powerful features, and they are fairly easy to use when building a website with WordPress. They make creating and managing a website easier and more convenient, which in turn attracts more visitors. So when you use WordPress, do not miss out on the great features of widgets. Make full use of them on your website.