{"id":999957524,"date":"2022-01-28T12:02:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T12:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/?p=999957524"},"modified":"2022-01-28T12:02:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T12:02:51","slug":"what-are-plugins-and-widgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/what-are-plugins-and-widgets\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Plugins and Widgets?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/what-are-plugins-and-widgets.jpg\" alt=\"What are Plugins and Widgets?\" class=\"wp-image-999960646\" title=\"What are Plugins and Widgets?\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"introduction-wordpress-plugin-wordpress-widgets\">Introduction: WordPress Plugin and WordPress Widgets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plugins <\/strong>and <strong>widgets <\/strong>play an important role in the flexibility of WordPress, as they were created by a large community intent on assisting others in customizing their websites and adding necessary functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress newcomers frequently struggle to understand widgets and plugins. While these are the fundamentals, the question remains. What are the distinctions between a <strong>WordPress plugin<\/strong> and a <strong>WordPress widget<\/strong>? Before we get to the actual differentiating points, I think it&#8217;s a good idea to first get a better understanding of each one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-a-plugin\">What is a Plugin?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plugins <\/strong>are third-party pieces of software that you can find and install through your <a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/wordpress-website-design.php\">WordPress<\/a> dashboard. Plugins are created to improve performance or add functionality to your website that is not included in the standard WordPress installation.<strong> Installing security<\/strong>, <strong>caching<\/strong>, and <strong>SEO plugins<\/strong>, for example, can help protect, speed up, and optimise your site for your users. Install form plugins to collect end-user information, or a gallery plugin to improve the layout of your images. The plugins listed below are recommended for your <strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/wordpress-hosting.php\">WordPress website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/plugins-f60.jpg\" alt=\"plugins and widgets\" class=\"wp-image-999957535\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-a-widget\">What is a Widget?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A <strong>widget <\/strong>is a type of plugin that appears on your site as a visible interactive function. Widgets are typically viewed as icons or buttons and are located at the top, bottom, or in a sidebar on your page. You&#8217;ve used a widget if you&#8217;ve ever clicked a &#8220;<strong>share button<\/strong>&#8221; at the top of a page to share a post to your social media site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Widgets are interactive functions that can be easily dragged and dropped around your site without the need for code updates or rewriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some examples of widgets include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A calendar<\/li><li>Search bar<\/li><li>Social media sharing buttons<\/li><li>A \u201cpurchase now\u201d icon<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/wordpress-widgets-f60-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/wordpress-widgets-f60-2.jpg\" alt=\"plugins and widgets\" class=\"wp-image-999957570\" width=\"750\" height=\"455\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a look at your smartphone to see an example of a widget. Widgets are pre-installed on most <strong>smartphones <\/strong>to help you navigate. Weather, maps, clocks, and so on are examples of widgets. You interact with the icons by touching them. Widgets function similarly on your WordPress site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"plugins-and-widgets-so-what-is-the-difference\">What is the Difference between Plugins and Widgets?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people are confused about the distinction between a widget and a WordPress plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider the distinction between <strong>apps <\/strong>and <strong>widgets <\/strong>on your smartphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, WordPress comes with Widget Areas and Widgets which are, in part,&nbsp;predefined areas that you can use to feature and display various types of content including those created by a plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a nutshell, plugins are similar to smartphone apps. They are extensions that must be installed and activated via the admin plugin screen before they can be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plugins can add a variety of <strong>functions <\/strong>and <strong>features <\/strong>to your WordPress website, including more widgets. However, not all plugins include widgets. It is entirely dependent on the plugin&#8217;s purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some will operate in the background, with no need for additional options or settings, whereas others will add a new menu to the WordPress dashboard, allowing you to customise the plugin settings to meet your specific requirements. Others will add widget functionality to the site, which leads to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Widgets. Widgets are content areas that can be added to a WordPress site via <strong>drag-and-drop<\/strong>. WordPress comes with a number of default widgets, but plugins can be installed to add more widgets to the dashboard. Depending on the theme, You can use widgets in specific widget-ready areas of your site, typically in the sidebar or footer, though Some themes will provide widget-ready spaces in the header and allow you to embed them on pages or posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More Information<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information about Google G Suite\/Workspace domains, Servers, Hosting, check out these\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/\">F60 Host<\/a>\u00a0resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/domains.php\">F60 Host Domains<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/shared-hosting.php\">F60 Host Hosting<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/google-gsuite-workspace.php\">Google G Suite<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/f60host.com\/ssl.php\">SSL Certificate<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction: WordPress Plugin and WordPress Widgets Plugins and widgets play an important role in the<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":999960646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,14],"class_list":["post-999957524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress","tag-wordpress","tag-wordpress-plugin-and-widgets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999957524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=999957524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/999957524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=999957524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=999957524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/f60host.com\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=999957524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}