In order to explain better what are WordPress widgets, I need to resort to a well established WordPress website such as the one you’re reading on right now. So I’ll take some screen shots of this website to illustrate what are widgets and what they help us to get done when building a website using WordPress.
The page you’re reading has a left hand column – that is, the column next to the content area that is closer to your left hand. On this page, you can see a Facebook Page Integration Box on the left hand column.
This Facebook Page Integration Box is a handy way for me to link to my Facebook Page from my WordPress Website. And it was placed there through a Widget.
The Facebook Page Integration Box was placed there using a the Facebook Page Integration Widget.
Just above the Facebook Integration Box, you can see what is called a “Breadcrumb navigation trail.” That is: You are at: PatrickCarpen.com >> Computers and Internet. This breadcrumb navigation trail was actually created using a text widget.
Just below the Facebook Page Integration Box, there is a set of Related Pages. This was placed there through the use of a widget called “Related Posts.”
So my left hand column contains three widgets. How did those widgets go there? I placed those widgets there by logging into my WordPress Dashboard then clicking Appearances >> Widgets.
On the right hand column, that is, the column closer to your right hand when you’re in from of the computer, you can see some other features. Well actually, just one other feature: the Pages Menu. The pages menu was placed on the right hand column using the “Pages Widgets.”
At present, the WordPress theme that is running on Patrickcarpen.com has about 4 or 5 widget areas. There is a widget area at the top right of the page as well. That’s where I placed the Like button for Facebook that gives users the opportunity to give my website a Facebook Like. It says “Great Website? Like.” And as you can, over 1000 people has liked the Great Website so far.
Just to make things clear, the creators of the WordPress Theme I’m using doesn’t use the terms “right hand column” or “left hand column.” That’s what I called it. They have different terminology for those widget areas as you can see from the screenshot below.
So now that you have a general idea of what a widget is, let’s go over back to our website in progress: hotelamazonasgy.com, and check out widgets. We’re going to remove some widgets from the right column, and possibly add some new ones in both the right and left hand column.
So see you in the next Lesson: Adding and Removing Widgets from your WordPress Website.
