Hi guys and welcome back to the WordPress in Plain English series. If you're new to WordPress or if you're just joining us, you should read the first few tutorials in this series to catch up before reading this section.
In this tutorial we're going to take a t look at how to add widgets to your blog. Let's get started. As usual you'll have to login to your WordPress admin panel...
Widgets are essentially little pieces of code that extend or add functionality to your Wordpress blog. To access the default widgets, go to the Appearance section of your admin panel and click on Widgets...
That will bring you to the main widgets panel with a list of about 12 different default widgets and a brief description of each one.
The number of widgets you see will vary depending on the theme and plugins installed, more about that in an upcoming tutorial.
To add or use any of the default widgets in your blog, use your mouse to select and drag the widget over to the sidebar (i.e. primary or secondary).
You can also add widgets to the footer area if your theme supports that. The default WordPress theme Twenty Ten has 4 widget areas in the footer section.
In the graphic below you'll see 3 sample widgets added to the secondary Widget Area (sidebar # 2)
- you can open most widgets and name them i.e. Topics instead of Categories
- select from a list of pre-defined options
- and then click Save to keep any of the changes you've made to your widgets
In an earlier post I wrote Build a Better Blog... Minimalism I explained in detail why it's a good idea not to crowd your blog with too much stuff. This advice really applies to widgets since too many will bloat the look and the speed(slow down the load time) of your blog so... use them with taste and moderation.
For a more detailed look and description of the default WordPress widgets in the WordPress documentation at...
WordPress Codex: Widgets Sub Panel
If you're confused about anything or if you have any questions about this tutorial, just ask me in the comments.
If you have additional topics you'd like to see covered or would like more information about custom graphics, themes or to book a 1 on 1 consultation to create or customize your WordPress or ActiveRain blogs, you can reach me here Later...
For more info about how we can help you stand out from the crowd, contact GiselleStCyr@garaughty.com
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