If you are wondering what is a Widget, here’s your answer: it’s an application, often embedded into the side-bar of a page, that performs one simple action. Some typical examples of widgets are social media icons or a blog archives or categories and calendar.
You might want to pick a few if you’d like to save some space and to always have them present at your site, at the user’s reach.
Adding Widgets
To make your widgets appear in your sidebars, go to the menu, select Appearance-> Widgets and drag the available widgets to the sidebar or footer region you want them to be.
Change the widget’s configurations.
You can modify the name and other settings, depending on the type of widget, by clicking on top of the small right arrow, changing the fields that appear and click to save.
Include the same widget more than once.
To do it, you only have to drag the same item to the desired area as many times as you wish. You also have the possibility to click on the name of the widget on the Available Widgets table and pick the location to add it to.
Move widgets with drag and drop.
If you need to adjust the location of a widget, move it to the new location by grabbing it with the mouse left-button and releasing the mouse at the final destination.
Remove a widget.
To remove them simply click on the Delete button and save.
Manage With Live Preview
Select the Manage with Live Preview blue button on top of the page to arrange widgets just like in the previous screen, but with the added bonus of a live preview of your changes.
Types of Widgets
There are numerous types of widgets you can choose from and each has its own configuration possibilities.
About Me
Includes an author’s description, picture, and social network links.
Contact Info
Displays contact information, with the possibility to add an address, mobile/fax, email, website, and skype username.
Custom Header Logo
Here you can select the position of your header’s logo.
Custom Header Nav
Choose the position of your widget title.
Custom Link
Use this option to include URL, until a maximum of 15, for that widget.
Custom Menu
To display a custom menu from your Menu’s section and customize its colors, font, spacing, and sizing.
Facebook Like Box
Shows a Facebook Like box to connect visitors to your Facebook page.
Flickr
Pulls an image from your Flickr account.
Shows a customizable number of Instagram photos.
Recent Posts
Lists a number of your recent or random blog posts.
Social Icons
Shows Social networks icons that your visitors can click to follow.
Tags Cloud
Displays a cloud of your most used tags.
To show your selected number of recent tweets.
Archives
List a monthly archive of your blog posts, that can display the number of posts per month.
Audio
If you want to include audio files.
Calendar
To show a calendar of the site’s posts.
Categories
Includes a list or dropdown of your posts’ categories.
Custom HMTL
To enter HTML code.
Gallery
Displays an image gallery.
Image
Displays a single image.
Meta
Shows the login, RSS and WordPress.org links.
Navigation Menu
Adds a navigation menu.
Pages
Shows a list of your site’s pages.
Recent Posts
Shows a list of your recent posts.
RSS
Entries from a RSS or Atom feed.
Search
Adds a search form to your site.
Text
Any arbitrary text you might want to include.
Video
To upload a video or embed an URL with one.