Widgets

Widgets are small reusable blocks — a menu, a list of recent posts, a search box, a mini cart, an advertisement — that you place in widget areas such as the blog sidebar, the shop sidebar or the footer. You build them once and they appear on every page that shows that area.

Appearance → Widgets. Available widgets are listed on the left; widget areas, with the widgets already placed in them, are on the right.

How widgets work

The Widgets screen has two halves. On the left, Available Widgets lists every kind of widget your site can use (the list grows when you install Booking or TruCommerce). On the right are the widget areas: named places in the design where widgets are shown. Adding a widget means placing a copy of one kind of widget in one area and configuring it.

Pick a widget → Add it to an area → Configure and save → Reorder if needed

Adding and configuring a widget

Open Appearance → Widgets.
On the left, click the name of a widget to expand it. Hover the question-mark icon, or read the grey line under the name, to see what it does.
In the expanded widget choose Add to <area> (for example Add to Blog), then select Add Widget. The widget appears at the bottom of that area.
On the right, open the area, then click the new widget’s title to expand its settings.
Set its title and options (each widget has different ones, listed below) and choose Save. A confirmation message appears.
Visit a public page that shows the area to check the result.

A widget area expanded with a Posts widget open and its settings visible

An open widget shows its own options, then the switches that control where it appears, and the Delete and Save buttons.

Depending on the widget you will also see these switches:

Setting	What it does
Title	The heading shown above the widget on the page. Leave it empty for no heading.
Enable on Desktop	Show the widget on large screens.
Enable on Mobile	Show the widget on phones and small tablets. Turn it off for long sidebar lists that would push content down.
Load Asynchronously	Loads the widget after the page appears, so a slow widget does not delay the rest of the page.
Status	Switch a widget off without deleting it.

Reordering and removing

Drag a widget by its title bar to change its order inside an area; the new order is saved automatically. Delete removes the widget from the area only — it does not delete the posts, menus, products or advertisements it was showing.

Widget areas

Area	Where it appears
Homepage	A general-purpose area. The default design does not place it automatically; show it on any page by adding the Widgets block in the Page Builder and entering the area identifier `sidebar`.
Categories	The sidebar next to blog category pages and next to the Booking category pages.
Tags	Intended for blog tag pages. Show it on a page with the Widgets block (identifier `tags-sidebar`).
Page	The sidebar next to ordinary pages that use a sidebar layout, and next to the Booking customer pages (My Bookings and the customer profile).
Blog	The sidebar next to the blog list and next to every blog post.
Footer Area 1 – 4	The columns of the site footer. How many are used and how they are arranged is set under Footer Columns and Widgets layout in Footer Layouts & Backgrounds.
Shop Sidebar	Next to the shop, category, tag and search pages of TruCommerce. Left or right is chosen in the store settings.
Product Sidebar	Next to a single product page.
Cart Sidebar	Next to the shopping cart.
Checkout Sidebar	Next to the checkout.

An empty area takes no space

If an area has no widgets, the page simply does not reserve a column for it, so you never get a blank sidebar.

You are not limited to the places in the table. The Widgets block of the Page Builder displays any widget area inside any page: choose the block, type the area identifier (post-sidebar, footer-1, trucommerce-shop-sidebar and so on) and the widgets of that area appear there. See Dynamic Blocks & Shortcodes.

Content widgets

These are always available.

Widget	What it shows	Options
Menu Widget	One of your menus as a list of links, for example footer link columns or a utility menu.	Select a Menu; Menu Style (List stacks the links, Inline puts them in a row).
Text	A block of plain text, such as an about-us blurb or opening hours.	Text.
Custom HTML	Any HTML you write: an embed, a map, a newsletter form, an icon list.	Code. Only paste markup you trust.
Advertisement	One of your advertisements.	The advertisement to show (active advertisements only).
Posts	A list of blog posts.	Layout (Numbered list, Thumbnails or Headlines); Number of posts to show; Featured (Featured Posts or Editor Choice to show only flagged posts); Order By (Latest, Oldest, Random or Popular).
Post Categories	The list of blog categories.	Order By (Custom order or Date created); Show Hierarchy (indent sub-categories); Show post counts; Hide empty (hide categories with no posts).
Tags	A cloud of the tags that are in use.	Number of tags to show (default 15); Hide empty.

Shop widgets (TruCommerce)

Available when the TruCommerce module is enabled. Most are meant for the shop and product sidebars. Their presentation (the design of the filter, list or search) follows the defaults in Settings → TruCommerce Settings → Widget Defaults; see Blocks & Widgets.

Widget	What it shows	Options
Category Filter	Lets customers narrow products by one or more categories.	Maximum categories.
Attribute Filter	Lets customers narrow products by attributes such as size, colour or brand.	Maximum attributes.
Price Filter	Lets customers narrow products to a price range.	Minimum, Maximum and Step of the range.
Mini Cart / My Cart	A compact summary of the shopping cart with quick access to the cart and checkout.	Presentation follows the Cart widget default.
Product List	A list of products, for example Latest or Popular.	Number of items; Product source (the rule that chooses the products).
Product Tags	Product tags, so customers can browse by tag.	Maximum tags.
Product Categories	Product categories or taxonomies to help customers browse.	Product Taxonomies (all taxonomies, or one such as Brands).
Product Search	A search form connected to the shop.	Button text and similar labels.
Shop Call to Action	A promotional panel that links to a featured product or to the shop.	Featured product (or Shop landing page), Description, Button Text.
Product Spotlight	Highlights one product to draw attention.	Product, Eyebrow (small label above the name), Button text.

Booking widgets

Available when the Booking module is enabled. They display live data, so they update when you change services, staff or packages. Their Layout option chooses one of the five Booking designs, or uses the design set in Booking Settings. See Booking Frontend Designs.

Widget	What it shows	Options
Booking Services	Active bookable services.	Number of items; Layout.
Service Categories	Active service categories with the number of services in each.	Number of items; Layout.
Booking Locations	Active locations that customers can browse before booking.	Number of items; Layout.
Booking Providers	Public staff members and the services they offer.	Number of items; Layout.
Booking Packages	Active packages and the services they include.	Number of items; Layout.
Service Search	A search form connected to the public services page.	Placeholder text.
Booking Call to Action	A call-to-action panel that opens the booking wizard.	Description; Button text.

Tips

Keep sidebars short: three to five widgets. Turn off Enable on Mobile for the ones phone users do not need.
Use the Advertisement widget for promotions that should repeat in every post, and the Page Builder block for a promotion on one page.
Footer widgets only show when Footer Widgets is on in Theme Options.
A widget that shows data (posts, products, services) shows nothing when there is nothing to show — for example a Posts widget on a site with no published posts.

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