Widgets and on which we

/Wijit/

Noun informal ? a small gadget or mechanical device.
-ORIGIN may be an alteration of the GADGET.

Becker

Over the past few years, the term "widget" slipped in the vernacular language of us technological civilians. Essentially, a widget is just a very useful gadget designed to do something interesting. Some are useful, as a clock widget. Some are random, as the "Magic 8 Ball widget.

Widgets can be very useful. They introduce a fun but practical personal touch that could not be had via a Web site with a basic model, such as Wordpress, Myspace or Facebook.

Some great widgets include the Box.net widget. The box.net widget is a widget that is extremely useful for file sharing. Another great widget is "Twidget. A Twidget is a customizable Twitter widget. It shows the designated amount of your last posts Twitter or lists. You can embed the widget on facebook, your blog or your general Web site. The Twidget, as well as of other fun various articles - including Twitter icons - found in the section "goodies" at the bottom of your Twitter page.

"Why so popular widgets, anyway?".

With designers loving and all merciful, widgets make it easy for you to modify your site without having to learn the code. Why unnecessarily to pay someone hundreds of thousands of dollars for a designer to sit at a desk and edit your Web site or widget when there are hundreds, even thousands of widgets out there so that you can Explorer? It may be counterintuitive on the part of the designers of web sites, but I suggest take you advantage, while they are still free.

"I've seen widgets, but I don't know how to put on my page."

After you customize your widget (if necessary), you are prompted to copy a code. This is called a "embed code". Copy the embed code and place it in the desired location one your site. For those who have a Wordpress template, you have two options. You can publish code on a "page" or you can go to the section "appearance" on the left side of your dashboard. After you click "widgets", you will notice that you already have a bunch of predefined widgets. If you want to use a non-standard widget, copy the embed code in the "text" widget Make sure that your text widget is placed where you want to appear on your site. If you don't like the widget, no worries. Delete all the code. Make sure you keep track of where the code starts and ends. The last thing you want to do is delete an essential part of your Web site or by mail.

"Where can I get a widget?

If you Google "useful widgets", a few million sites together. I found these two useful addresses:

http://Mashable.com/2007/09/06/widgets-2/

http://www.Widgetbox.com/galleryhome/

Happy Widgeting!

Warning: Widgets can be addictive. If your site is that pasted with dozens of useless and you widgets you find until midnight to research to learn more, ask for help.

Natasha Thompson

[www.][NatashaTArts.com]