How to Set Up and Configure WordPress

Installing, Activating and Managing Widgets in WordPress

The final things you need to get set up are widgets

These are pre-programmed modules, which come as part of WordPress, that you add to the sidebars of your blog to display useful or relevant bits of information.

You can use them to contain affiliate ads, opt in forms, calendars, recent posts, popular posts - pretty much anything you like.

Many of them are pre-programmed but there's also a text widget which is totally flexible. You can think of it as a blank HTML page and use it for forms, or any HTML creation you choose to come up with.

Occasionally plugins will install widgets so that they can do their thing. You manage these in exactly the same way.

Important: the video below refers to Widgets in WordPress 2.8. We're now into WordPress 3.X, but the process for managing widgets is exactly the same. If and when it changes I'll update this page.

Installing and Managing Widgets

You can access your widgets through the Appearance>Widgets screen.

Here's a video on installing and managing them:



OK - that's all you need to do to set up your blog. One of the things you will need to do is to keep your blog up to date. Sometimes updates can cause problems, so let's look at what can happen and some ways to fix it...