Using Widgets to build your site

You might never have heard the term "widget" in before. If so, it can be a bit of a shock when you sign up to create your first website, and suddenly realize that widgets are everywhere in the Yola Sitebuilder. If you find yourself asking any of these questions, you are in good company:

Many people have both asked and attempted to answer this question - although the term might be difficult to define, widgets are very useful! They are sometimes also called components, gadgets or elements. It might help to think of widgets as discrete chunks of code that allow you to add content to your site without having to write any code yourself. In Yola, you drag and drop widgets onto your page. Some widgets you edit directly, like the Text widget. We have also integrated with several widget galleries which allow you to easily add a wide selection of exciting content to your site.

In this lesson, we will look at some of the widget options available in the Sitebuilder. Hopefully, this will give you a better idea of what is available so that you can create websites which are even more compelling and dynamic!

We have other tutorials that can introduce you to the most important widgets which allow you to add text, images, Flickr photos, videos and slideshows (you can find more information on these links: Creating Your Homepage, Adding New Pages & Exploring Images). But why stop there? Let's dig a little deeper and find some other widgets you might want or need for your site.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to add other content using other widgets available on Yola:

1. Form widget
2. HTML widget

Using a Form Widget

Yola offers its own Yola Form, and we have also integrated with Wufoo. They have both free and paid services available.

We will now show you how to add a Form widget:

1. Click Widgets. 
2. Select Popular from the drop-down menu.
3. Drag and drop the Form widget onto your page and select the type of form you would like to use.
4. Each form has a "Settings" and "Edit" tab. Within these tabs, you can use the fields to change the details of your form. You can add, delete, rename and move the location of these fields.
5. A ReCAPTCHA is automatically included in the form. ReCAPTCHAs are an excellent way to prevent blank and spam form submissions. 
6. When you are finished customizing your form, click Save.
7. Save your page and click Publish.
8. You will be able to view your form on your website.

Using the HTML widget

Did you know that you can add any widget you can find on the internet to your site? In this tutorial, we will add a video from Vimeo.com.  

1. Visit Vimeo and copy the embed code provided (here is a link with more detail on how to get that code: Adding Vimeo and other video services).
2. Copy the HTML code provided.
3. Back on your site, drag and drop the HTML widget onto your page.  
4. Paste the embed code into the HTML Editor.
5. When you are finished, click Save.
6. Republish your site by clicking Publish.  

We hope this tutorial has helped you understand a little bit more about widgets and how they can be used to add fun, exciting or useful content to your website.