19 WordPress 101 Adding & Setting Up Widgets Video Lecture | WORDPRESS Premium- Tools and Tips - IT & Software

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hello and welcome to this my theme shot
in video screencast in today's video I'm
going to be showing you how to add
widgets to your wordpress powered site
now once you're logged into the
WordPress dashboard you're going to want
to head over to the left hand menu hover
over appearance and click on widgets
which is going to take you to the widget
menu in the WordPress dashboard and here
you can be able to control everything to
do with widgets on your site if two
things two columns here you have
available widgets which is the widgets
that are available to you to add to your
site and you have the widget areas here
these can collapse or expand and they
have a small description and these are
the areas that you can drop widgets into
so for example I'm going to see if the
sidebar here at the moment I have the WP
subscribe pray widget and if I expand
this and I can see the options related
to the widget you can also save close or
delete the widget so I've wanted to
remove this one I would just click
delete the widget area is that you've
got it's going to depend on your theme
and different themes will have different
widget areas available indeed some might
not have any while others will have
dozens each one's going to have this
title here and a short description so
for example the homepage sidebar is
similar to the sidebar but it's only
going to appear on the home page and if
we just expand these two boxes we're
gonna see what we've got on the home
page sidebar we've got our Facebook like
box and you can see here we can change
things such as a title a Facebook page
URL the width and the faces and we've
got a couple of options here and below
that we've got the my theme shop recent
posts they're showing five recent posts
with the post date and number of
comments so if we just view our site
then we're going to see on the home page
we've got the like box on the right-hand
side and the sidebar and then we've got
recent post displaying below that now
widgets are great because you can drag
and drop them in order to customize them
you can just pick them up and drag and
drop save owns it to move recent posts
up to the top we just need to drag and
drop it up to the top and if I just
refresh here then we're going to see
that we've now got the
most displaying on the top and the
Facebook button is going to display
below that there so you can also move
widgets between widget areas so if I
wanted to have this on the regular
sidebar rather than the homepage sidebar
I would just need to drag and drop that
over there if I wanted to move it to the
footer for example it's just a case of
dragging and dropping so for example I
could spread out these footer widgets
here just by moving those around now
adding new widgets is really simple all
you need to do again is drag and drop so
if I wanted to show my popular posts on
my sidebar for example I just need to
pick up that widget area and drag and
drop I can then change the options
specific to that widget so this is
popular posts over the last 30 days for
example so I might just change that to
90 and you can click Save and again
you've got delete and closed there you
can also just to make it a little bit
easier for you if you click on a widget
you want to add then you can tick the
widget area that you would like to add
the widget to so if wants to add this to
a single sidebar I just need to click
add widget and you can see that's going
to add that there and it just makes it a
little bit easier to use because you
don't want to be dragging a dropping
over the whole of the page sometimes and
you can just change those settings now
you've got options for inactive widgets
so here you can remove widgets from your
sidebar but not delete them so if you
want to save any of these settings
I'll just collapse the available widgets
here so if you wanted to keep the
settings for popular posts you could
just drag and drop into inactive widgets
and that's going to save that there and
if ever you want to move it back in you
can drag and drop back in there and as
always with widgets these changes are
going to be made immediately so you can
be able to see those reflected on your
site straight away they've got one other
option which is manage the widget areas
in the theme customizer and that's going
to happen if you click manage in
customizer now hey you can load up all
of the widget areas specific to that
page so here on the home page you've
only got the footer header and home page
sidebar you can just click on the widget
area you'd like to edit and then you can
either reorder just by
and then moving those around and then
you're gonna see those changes made
immediately or you can add new widgets
by pressing add widget and you're gonna
see a drop down from the side come up
and here you can add extra widgets
elfonzo add recent comments for example
then I would just select that widget and
I can just type in here recent comments
and I'm going to see those changes made
immediately on the site this is a great
way of previewing once you're done you
can just click Save and publish
and then those pages are going to be
saved and then published onto your site
immediately you can make changes to
other widget areas just by pressing back
or if you click onto a different post
then you're going to see the widget area
is specific to that page for you so here
for example this is a single page so
I've got the single sidebar showing up
and I can amend my popular post here and
I want to change this to say a thousand
days just to get a couple of posts to
show up there and we can see what that's
gonna look like there and those changes
are going to be made immediately as
always you can reorder or add a widget
there in order to move those around and
again just click Save and publish once
you are done we can now close the
customizer and that's going to take us
back to the widget screen on the
wordpress dashboard so when you switch
your WordPress theme you're going to see
that not all WordPress themes have the
same widget areas and any widgets that
you've got in widget areas that don't
exist on a new theme that you're
switching to I got moved into inactive
widgets which you'll see down on the
left hand side so it might remove on the
widgets that you've got on your website
when you change your theme but you are
going to be able to find them in the
inactive widgets section so if I just
show you what that looks like if we just
head to appearance and I'm just going to
quickly change my wordpress theme back
to writing a different theme there and
if we now head back to widgets you're
going to see we've got only two widgets
areas by default on this theme and that
all of my widgets I've just created and
have in my theme and now moved on to the
inactive widgets section and you can
just click on that and
to see the options and drag and drop
that back to where you want it indeed if
we switch back as we can do here just
gonna activate best again and then we
head back to our widget section then
we're going to see that we've got the
same widget areas here and that they
have the widgets that we had moved into
them earlier so you don't need to panic
if you switch your theme and find that
all your widgets have gone just needed
to go back to inactive widgets and drag
and drop them into the new widget areas
so that's really all there is to it
widgets these are really customizable
really great for flexibility and just
drag and drop the widget you want into
the widget area and if you need a little
bit of help know in which widget area is
specific for which part of your theme
and check out your themes documentation
and that might be able to help you a
little bit more you can customize the
details so here we can have the title
sis categories and you've got also got
typically a couple of options there some
widgets aren't going to have options but
you just drag and drop those and they
will display automatically delete or
clothes or save and moving around those
changes are going to be saved
automatically for you that's really all
there is to it you have any queries then
please head over to community don't my
theme shop calm and thank you very much
for watching
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