Understanding and Installing WordPress Widgets in a standard WordPress Theme.
All wordpress themes have a different widget layout. WordPress Widgets add features for your WordPress website’s sidebars. Examples are the default widgets that come with WordPress — like those for archives, post categories, search bars and custom menus.
One of the great things about WordPress widgets is that they require no code experience or expertise. Thanks to WordPress, they can simply be added, removed and rearranged by drag and drop.
Most WordPress themes offer different page templates that decide where widget locations are in the page design. Additionally nearly all have a different widget structure. But that is standardised. Always a Sidebar area and Footer area in your widget area.
In addition to the default WordPress widgets area, WordPress plugins often add their own widgets as well. Some may add additional options for customization themes.
To see how widgets work, log in to your WordPress site and visit the hover over Appearance then Click Widgets.
On the left side of the page, you’ll see all available widgets. Default widgets will be visible here, plus any additional widgets that have been added by your installed plugins or active theme. On the right, you’ll see all of your widget available and the widget locations of your specific theme.
Widgets and the Active theme are tied together. Don’t expect to activate a theme and have the old widgets in the place before themes activation.
To add a widget to a location, simply drag and drop the widget from its place on the left into the right section to activate them.
To remove them, simply drag the widget back or click delete.
For our current active theme, we have several widget locations. Say you want to add a search bar. Just drag the search widget over (usually to the top of the sidebar). Now, if you return to your site, you’ll see that a search bar has been added to the sidebar.
More advanced users
A WordPress Widget is a small block of code that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget ready areas on your web page.
WordPress widgets are easy to use ways of giving design and structural control of the WordPress theme to the user.
Widgets can be easily dragged and dropped into a specific widget area. You can find the list of available widgets and widget areas by going to the Appearance » Widgets section in your WordPress dashboard of a specific active theme.
Widgets allow you to add content and features in the widgetised areas of your theme which is mostly the sidebar and footer area.
Having a wordpress theme that is widget ready.
To Delete a Widget in the Widget area.
This is another once you know, you don’t forget. Simple click on the widget title. The options will open, here you can,
Drag it up a place or down a place or Delete the widget completely.