How to Add a Widget to Your WordPress.com Blog

2 of 8 in Series: The Essentials of Adding to Your WordPress Blog

WordPress widgets are very helpful tools built into the WordPress.com application. Widgets allow you to easily arrange the display of content in your blog sidebar, so you can arrange and display the content in the sidebar of your blog without having to know a single bit of PHP or HTML:

1

Log in to your WordPress.com account.

Your WordPress.com main page opens.

2

Click the Widgets link on the Appearance menu in your Administration panel.

The Widgets page opens. On the left side of the Widgets page, a listing of all widgets available for your WordPress.com blog appears. On the right side of the Widgets page are the widgets you're using in your sidebar.

3

Select the widget you want to use.

All the widgets are listed in the Available Widgets section.

4

Click the Add link to the right of the widget's title.

The widget appears in the Current Widgets section. An Edit link also appears to the right of the widget's title.

5

Click the Edit link to configure the options for this widget.

Each widget has different options that you can configure. The Archives widget, for example, lets you configure the title, the display of the post counts, and the display of the archives.

6

Select your options and click the Done button.

The options menu for the widget closes.

7

Click the Save Changes button.

WordPress.com saves your configurations for all your widgets.

8

Arrange your widgets in the order in which you want them to appear on your site by clicking a widget and dragging it above or below another widget.

Repeat this step until you have your widgets arranged the way you want them.

9

Click the Save Changes button when you're done configuring your widgets.

WordPress saves all your changes and reloads the Widgets page with a confirmation message at the top that says Changes Saved.

10

After you select and configure all your widgets, click the Visit Site button at the top of your WordPress Administration panel.

Your blog's sidebar appears, matching the content (and order of the content) you've arranged in the sidebar on the Widgets page.

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