Working with widgets
A widget is a web tool that performs a specific function. They are usually seen as small windows on the side, top, or bottom of your screen. Some of the most common widgets are calendars, clocks, news feeds, and random quotations.
Widgets are seen in websites, in desktop of computers, or even in mobile phones. The two widgets below (the Calendar and Facebook widgets) are examples of widgets at the side bar of Blogineering.com. Note, however, that even though we used Facebook as example of a widget in this blog, WordPress.com does not allow embedding ‘Like Us Facebook’ widgets. It can only be embedded in hosted WordPress blogs.
Most widgets are codes that can be reused in different websites. They are written in HTML, Javascript, or other web programming languages.The code below is the code of the Facebook widget shown above.
<div id=”fb-root”></div><script src=”http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1″></script><fb:like-box href=”http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blogineering/203970016322312″ width=”250″ show_faces=”true” border_color=”" stream=”false” header=”false”></fb:like-box>
Some widgets are just codes that you can directly copy and paste to your website. Others widget sites like Clustermaps will require you to register to get the code.
Widgets in WordPress
To embed a widget in WordPress, go to your Dashboard and select Widget from the Appearance panel. You will see a list of available widgets. Drag the widgets of your choice to your side bar. The most important widgets are the Recent Posts, Top Posts, Search, and Archives.
Third Party widgets (widgets that are not found on your Dashboard) like the Facebook widget above can be embedded using the Text widget. Drag the text widget to your side bar, click the the arrow at the right to open it, paste the widget code, and then press the Save button. Refresh your browser to view your blog with the new widget.
When you like a particular widget, and it’s written in Javascript, or other WordPress.com forbidden codes, there are some widgets that have HTML versions. Look for these versions because most of them are allowed in WordPress.com.
