Sidebar/Widget Area/Widgeted Area
The terms sidebar, widget area and widgeted area all refer to the same thing. Often there is confusion when “sidebar” is used because the name gives people the idea that a widgeted area can only appear to the right or left of the content. However, a sidebar or widgeted area can appear virtually anywhere on the site where you want to use widgets to display content. So a sidebar could actually be in the header, before the content, after the content, in the footer, and so on.
In some themes, like Dynamik Website Builder, the EZ Home page content is actually made up entirely of "sidebars" or widgeted areas. Therefore, you can't find the EZ Home page, or any Home page at all, in your list of pages! All the Home page content is added via widgets.
Dynamik Website Builder uses the term "Widget Area" to refer to sidebars in its Custom Options section. With the Widget Area tool, you can add sidebars pretty much anywhere you want on your site.
There's at least one plugin that allows you to add sidebars to your theme, based on the individual page/post, a group of pages/posts, the author, page template, category, tag, and so on. You can replace the default sidebars or merge your own sidebars above or below the default ones. The plugin is called "Content Aware Sidebars" and it's one of my favourites.
Widget
A widget is a WordPress tool that enables users to add, change, edit and rearrange the content in sidebars/widgeted areas. There are several default widgets that come with WordPress, such as calendar, blogroll, archives, pages, posts, text, recent comments, search, meta, rss, etc. There are also widgets that may come with the theme you are using, and there are many other widgets that can be installed via plugins. The widgets that come with your theme, or that you install yourself, can enhance or replace the default widgets in WordPress or bring completely new functionality to your Web site or blog.
As the site administrator, widgets give you amazing customization opportunities. New WordPress users often go crazy with widgets, but more is not always better. The old principle of K.I.S.S. still applies. Remember, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!" Do you really need a calendar on your site? Do you really need a blogroll (a list of other people's sites, typically blogs)? Do you really need the current date and time or a weather map? Maybe the latter is a good idea if you're a local ski resort or day-trip destination, but otherwise? Hardly necessary.
Click on the thumbnail below to see a PDF of the Widget/Sidebar area that shows up on some of the pages on this Web site. The Header Right sidebar/widget area holds a Custom Menu, dragged from the "Widgets" area on the left of the screen.
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