Menus are extremely important to a website or blog as they basically show you what is there and where to find it. If it’s too difficult to navigate you will lose your visitors. When I think of menus I tend to think of bright Christmasy style things that are not at all stereotyped. I like the bold and appealing to catch the eye. I guess I am an extrovert. Unfortunately that is not usually the case with websites. WordPress menus in particular are, on the whole, rather on the dull side. Rather quietly and without too much fanfare, they have brought in customized menus on WordPress.com.

Besides using the top menu options with drop downs ext. WordPress have given you a Widget which you can develop up to three sub levels deep. You can use more than one widget if you have a number of different features. e.g. Categories or posts etc.

You can extend the widgets to other sections and have them on other pages and use the new menus there too.
You can use this for numerous different categories and sub categories.
In addition to this widget you can create menus up top on the top menu bar and have a category menu drop down which you can then use to point towards pages where you use the widgets as well.
Some of the latest of the themes support these custom menus and you need to look out for them before choosing a theme. One of these is Notepad.

One of the items you can do with this is to create your menu for navigation. This you do by making a name and then clicking on create menu. Once you have your menu you can create extra pages and categories in it. All you do is find the relevant pages and tick them then click add to menu and it’s done. Don’t forget to save them.

Additional links.
To add new links you will require is to have the http: name. Label it and then add it to the menu.

There are additional ways of changing the menu titles. The little arrow on the end of the title that appears to be a drop down is where you would click and it will allow you to change the name and give it a navigation title as well as an attribute.

If you wish to change the ordering of the menu this can be done by doing a drag and drop method. The only problem with this is if you have thick fingers or drop things in the wrong place. Ask me I have done it. If you do you have to pick it up and drag it again.

If you choose to create more than one menu on a theme, you can customize each separately. Just make sure you activate the correct one by choosing from the drop down and saving it.

Finally be sure to choose one of the themes that uses customized menus or they won’t work. All you will get will be a little red warn box.

If that happens, you can add the custom menu widget to the sidebar. A final word, remember, WordPress.com is different from WordPress.org.

When you are ready to integrate your blog with your twitter account, there are several ways to do this. If you want to display your twitter updates on your blog this can be accomplished as well.  The way social networks are integrating at the rate of knots is astounding. It is almost like a bush fire the way things are spreading and intertwining on the internet. If you don’t get into it shortly you will surely be left behind. It seems you have no sooner mastered one aspect of the social networking than 20 more have sprung up without your realizing it. Twitter obviously was one of the earlier ones to become popular, mainly because everyone was trying to say things in a very few words. It seems incredible that Twitter has only been available since March 2006.

Some of the ways to integrate Twitter into your blog are listed below.  Each has their merits and it’s merely a case of choosing which one you prefer to use.

The first we look at is a widget.

It is the Twitter widget, in fact. It is available to get from WordPress at the Twitter Widget Plug-in.  This works by adding a sidebar to your display where updates from your Twitter are shown.

The next is a Pro version.

This is the Pro version, and it brings in the twitter feeds and includes the username. Links and hashtags are incorporated as are profiles with images.
In addition you can choose to whether or not to show the time as well as the date of the relevant tweet. To use this widget you do have to be using PHP version 5.

The version of Twitter Tools is a plug-in which is aimed to make a total integration between the two accounts.

Twitter for WordPress

A second Plug-in is available from WordPress and will bring your latest tweets from Twitter directly onto your blog.  It is called Twitter for WordPress.

Twitter Friends Widgets

Now we go back to widgets for the next offering. It is called Twitter Friends Widget. To get it on to your blog just drag and drop into your sidebar and then set it up by configuring it. Now it should display your Twitter messages in the sidebar. In addition it should display your followers on Twitter in your sidebar as well.

Simple Twitter

There is a Simple Twitter which is a WordPress plug-in. This enables you to add your Twitter messages to appear in your blog.

My Twitter

My Twitter is a little more extensive as it allows your twitter messages to be displayed. It also allows you to customize your more recent messages as well as being able to format these.

Twitter counter

Twitter counter counts your twitter visitors. Do you want to know how many of your twitter followers actually come and visit your blog and read more in depth about what you have to say? Well then you need to add this WordPress plug-in.

I am about to take you widget hunting! Always wondered what a widget is?  I know I did. What exactly is a widget and why should we worry about them? I know when I first saw the word appearing on websites I was wondering is this a new Virus or a new Trojan or what exactly is it. It had me mystified for a while. Sometimes I can’t be the brightest beacon on the horizon! In due course I did explore to find out exactly what it was and why it was useful.
The penny dropped. A widget is a little tool that I as the viewer of the website can use on that website to do something. It’s that little thing I click on to see the weather for my city.

Let’s find out more about widgets. (What exactly is a widget-ready WordPress theme?)

In actual fact let’s look at Word press widgets and why they are included in themes.  This means in essence that the theme is set up to include an area that will allow you to use this area to do the drag and drop method to put in certain types of information. Most of these areas are in the sidebar of the theme. Widgets made their debut in WordPress 2.2 and are now considered to be part and parcel of most themes.

Do you really want widgets? (Why would you want to use widgets?)

Well you might want them if you want easier connection to alter items in your sidebar. Having one enables you to move things around far more easily. But your theme really needs to be widget ready for you to do so. So let’s get started and check.
Let’s learn how to use widgets.

Step 1: Make sure the theme is widget ready.

You need to make the theme widget-ready. So, move on over to your Presentation menu and find the widgets section in the admin panel. If you find that there is no sidebar, sorry, you are unlucky.

Step 2: See what is available

We are presuming there are widgets available and we are going to use these.
Drag and drop some of the widgets that are available into the sidebar.
If the wording can be changed it will indicate this will a little icon. You can change the wording on them to suit you.

Step 3: Additional Widgets

Scrolling on down the page you can see more widgets that are available.
Some should be text widgets where you can put in any text and show them in the sidebar. Grab the ones you want and save them.

We are going to use two widgets that have text.

Drop your text in and put them where you want them in the sidebar. Save the section.
I am sure you found that easy and its does add great fun to your WordPress Theme. If you want more widgets WordPress has a special section where you can find approved 3^rd party widgets. Let’s go widget hunting. Wonder if that’s like snipe. It’s something to think about.

WordPress is a free and open source blog publishing application. It has a template system which includes widgets that can be reorganized. Moreover this can be done without editing the PHP or HTML code. Widgets are a buzzword that has been given to the sidebar chopping plug-in in WordPress themes. Widgets are gadgets or gizmos that can help personalize your WordPress theme, and enable the user to add or rearrange different components without using HTML.

There seems to be a widget revolution that is going around on the internet. Everywhere you look, you are bound to find news widget, stocks widget, RFF feeds widget, content widgets, photo widgets, video player widgets, etc. It is an application that can be put on a blog, social profile or web page which provides visitors user specific and user friendly information, extra functionality and some fun!

They come in a ready to use format and are visually very attractive in the form of graphs, photos, statistics, numbers, pictures or just anything. It is a simple HTML code which is available on the websites that hosts free widgets. You can copy the HTML code and embed it on your web page.

With so many widgets, how can you choose the right widget for your blog? Read further to find out.

The first thing to look out while choosing the right widget for your blog, or web site is customization. If the widget is customizable, it would be able to fit your blog or website. A customizable widget will make sure that the widget will not clash with the layout, design or color of the blog or the web site. Plus you will be able to maintain some symmetry with the content as well. If your chosen widget cannot be customized, it is best to make sure that it fits with your blog or web site, and does not look different.

The next thing that needs to be considered while choosing the right widget is price. If you have price constraints, you are most likely to choose from the thousands of free widgets that are already available on the internet.

It is also important to study the kind of people and their demographics who would be visiting your blog or website. It is best to choose widgets that would be liked by them. Also make sure that your widgets would work with all browsers.

An important factor in choosing the right widget for your blog or web site, would be one that is relevant to your topic and content, and shares the same display and look of your existing blog or web site. While choosing the right widget for your blog, make sure that the widget can add substance to the existing content. For example, you would not like personal photos on a stock or technology website, or a stock sticker on your photography blog. It is also important to decide which out of the 6 standard sizes of widgets should be used.

Finally even though it may be very tempting to put numerous widgets on your website, do not make the mistake to do so. Only add those that you really need and you would really use. Too many widgets on a blog or a web site, could make it confusing and less efficient to use.

A recent research carried out by means of polling states the top 10 widgets on blogs and web pages are:

• Bookmark This
• Email Subscription
• Picture Badge
• Recent Visitor
• Search Blog
• Snapshot widget
• Twitter Update
• Playlist Video Widget
• Web Poll Widget