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In previous tutorials we’ve shown you how to customize a good deal of your blog including the header and menu. The next step for many new users is to customize the sidebar of their blog.
Again, let’s use the Twenty Eleven theme as our example theme. If you’ve already switched to another theme for your blog, then the specifics will be slightly different (and the screenshots below won’t exactly match up with your theme), but this tutorial will still give you enough information and guidance to make the switch on your own theme.
As you can see, the default sidebar configuration for this theme is to have your content on the left side of the screen underneath the header, in the sidebar on the right:
In order to change your sidebar, log in to your administrative dashboard. While you’re in your dashboard, click Appearance and then click Theme Options below that. You’ll see the basic theme options that are available for the Twenty Eleven theme. With respect to the sidebar, your choices for this theme are to have your content on the left side of the screen (with the sidebar on the right), content on the right (sidebar on the left) or no sidebar at all. Choose the setup you want and click the “Save Changes” button to modify your blog.
In order to change what information is displayed in your sidebar, look under the Appearance menu on your dashboard and click the Widgets selection.
Widgets are one of the most powerful features of the WordPress framework. They let you put small, discrete pieces of content and functionality in various places on your website, in any different arrangement that your theme supports. After you click the Widgets link, you’ll see all of the widgets you have available to you in the Twenty Eleven theme.
Let’s say, for example, that you want to replace the default widgets in the sidebar with a calendar of upcoming events. First locate the “Main Sidebar” area on the right side of the screen, and delete any widgets that are already there.
Find the “Calendar” widget on the list of available widgets, then drag and drop it into the main sidebar area. If you want to change the name of your calendar, simply type the name you want into the “Title” box and click the “Save” button.
When you go back to the main page of your blog, you’ll see a new calendar widget you just added:
You can also change the order of the different widgets in any sidebar by going back to the widget area of your dashboard and simply dragging and dropping the individual widgets into the order you desire.
As you become more comfortable with WordPress, you’ll be able to explore the possibility of adding widgets and “plug-ins” that might not come prepackaged with your theme, but are available in the WordPress.org plug-in directory. Go to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ to discover plug-ins that you can use to help keep readers on your blog longer. Other themes also have multiple sidebars; feel free to explore all your options as you become more experience with WordPress.
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