Transcript WordPress Widgets Kathy E Gill 1 February 2011 What Are Widgets? A “configurable code snippet" that makes it possible to modify function and appearance.

WordPress Widgets
Kathy E Gill
1 February 2011
What Are Widgets?
A “configurable code snippet" that
makes it possible to modify
function and appearance
Widgets & WordPress
Themes
Not all themes are widget-capable
Themes vary in widget options,
location
Single Widget Area
Multiple Widget Areas
Where Are Widgets?
Access the widgets page
from the Appearance Menu
in your Dashboard.
Default Appearance - Single
Default Appearance - Multi
Monotone: No Widgets Supported
Editing Appearance
Note: once you edit a widget area, the
default widgets disappear
Recommendation: before editing, take
a screenshot of your theme
Tip: if you don’t want anything to show
up in a widget area, try adding a blank
text widget.
Adding Widgets
 To add a widget,
drag from the
Available or
Inactive Widgets
area on the left
onto the Sidebar
area on the right.
 When you see a
dashed line
appear, you can
drop the widget
into place.
Single widget area; image from WP.com
Multiple Widget Locations
Configuring Widgets
Each widget has
configuration options.
Click on the triangle
on the right side of the
widget to configure.
You’ll need to save
only if you edit.
Ordering, Deleting Widgets
Change the order of the widgets by
dragging and dropping them in the
sidebar area.
Delete by dragging to the left or
clicking the “delete” link on the
configuration box.
Note: design change is immediate –
no “save” required
Screencast
Important Widgets (1/5)
Archives
Navigation. Provides access to old
posts; a key characteristic of blog as a
genre
Categories
Navigation. Provides access to posts by
topic; a key characteristic of blog as a
genre
Important Widgets (2/5)
Links
As Blogroll, Background. Provides insight
into blog content, author; a key
characteristic of blog as a genre
Tag Cloud
Navigation, Background. Provides
access to posts by keyword; requires
reasonably large corpus to be useful.
Important Widgets (3/5)
Pages
Navigation. Provides access to pages;
essential if sidebar is primary navigation.
Category Cloud
Navigation, Background. Provides
alternative access to posts by category;
requires reasonably large corpus to be
useful.
Important Widgets (4/5)
Recent Posts
Background. Highlights most recent posts;
useful when “more” tag not employed.
Recent Comments
Background. Highlights most recent
comments; requires reasonably large
corpus/frequent comments to be
meaningful.
Important Widgets (5/5)
Text
May be the most important widget; can
hold text or HTML but no javascript.
RSS Links
Provides access to post and comment
RSS feed using orange button. Essential if
there is no other RSS subscription link in
the design.
Interesting Widgets (1/3)
Twitter
Background. Displays tweets by handle.
Flickr
Background. Displays photos from Flickr
based on an RSS feed.
Delicious
Background. Display Delicious links by
handle.
Interesting Widgets (2/3)
Box.net
Functionality. Share files with your readers.
Meebo
Functionality. Enables private IM chat.
SocialVibe
Functionality. Support a charity.
Interesting Widgets (3/3)
Blog Subscription
Functionality. Enables email alert when
there are new posts.
SocialVibe
Functionality. Support a charity.
Widgets That Require Content
 Search
Useless unless there is a large corpus.
 Top Clicks
Useless unless there is a large corpus.
 Top Posts and Pages
Useless unless there is a large corpus.
WordPress Widgets
List and descriptions at WP.com:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/t
opic/widgets-sidebars/
Even more widgets available for
self-hosted WP accounts:
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordP
ress_Widgets
For Portfolio Sites
Consider adding links to
Facebook, LinkedIn
and Twitter
You will use Text Box.
We’ll do one of these
on Thursday.
Widgets Are Not Plug-ins
• WP.com has no userconfigurable plug-ins
• Widgets = content (more or
less)
• Plug-Ins = functionality (usually
are back-end, such as Akismet,
statistics or Google analytics,
but may provide short-code
functionality or easy content
sharing)
Credits
Kathy E Gill, @kegill
Creative Commons: share-andshare alike, non-commercial,
attribution