WordPress Tutorial #7
#1. Click on Appearance/Widgets
From your WordPress Dashboard, scroll down the left-hand menu and click Appearance, then Widget.
On the Widgets screen you’ll see a list and brief description of all the available widgets. If you scroll down, you’ll see a section for Inactive Widgets.
Along the right-hand side are all of the available Widgetized Areas.
A widgetized area, as its name implies, is an area where you can place a widget.
The most common widgetized areas are the sidebar and the footer.
#2. Select the Widgetized Area You Want to Use
Notice that each of the widgetized areas have a little arrow next to the name.
My current theme, Prose, offers a primary and a secondary sidebar area. I’m going to add a widget to the Primary Sidebar Area.
Click the arrow to expand the area. Now you’re ready to add your widget.
#3. Choose Your Widget
I want to add an area to my sidebar that will show my most recent posts from my Twitter Feed. The widget is called Genesis Latest Tweets.
Here it is in the list.
#4. Add the Widget
Make sure your widgetized area is expanded (see #2 above). There are two ways to add it.
- Click the name of the widgetized area you want to add it to in the dropdown list that appears when you expand the widget, or
- Use your mouse to drag the widget into it and drop it into place
The widget will be added at the bottom of the widgetized area, but never fear, you can reposition it.
If you’re using the drag-and-drop method, notice that as you drag the widget into the area, a box surrounded by dashed lines appears.
In this case, I don’t want the widget at the bottom of the area, instead I’d like it to follow the “Let’s Connect” area.
To reposition it, simply grab it with your mouse and drag it up until you see the new box appear, then drop it.
#5. Set Up the Widget
You’ve added your widget successfully, but depending on what the particular widget does, you may have one more step.
Some widgets require you to fill in some information. In this case, I need to give the widget some information about my Twitter account.
The Title is whatever you want your site visitors to see as a label above the widget. Here I’m just going to use “Latest Tweets.”
Then I fill in my Twitter username, the number of tweets I want to show (4) and a couple of other bits of information.
Click Save and Close and you’re all done.
Let’s see how it looks to visitors.
Congratulations, Widget-meister!
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