If you get the impression that I have this bad case of confusion all over my face, you are correct.
Jo’s Cafe doesn’t have use widgets.
Jo hasn’t a clue what to do with a widget.
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So while I’m hunting for a new theme, all I’m seeing is “widget ready” or “must have widgets enabled”.
I have no freaking widgets Widgets are suppose to make updating information on your blog side-bars easier, but you can’t mix widgets with regular text — So I guess Jo’s Cafe will have this boring dull theme for as long as it takes Jo to figure out widgets. now. It does not appear that widgets give you total control, but actually take that control away from you.
Jo’s Cafe will remain Widget-Free for now. Sean gave me a short how-to in comments, so Widget-Free may not be forever. Thanks Sean! 
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4 responses so far ↓
Jo -
No clue where you got the idea where they give you no control, but that couldn’t be further from the case.
For things you want to enter by hand there are “Text Widgets” where you can enter any old thing you want. For the other’s, they are pre-built, but you can make adjustments to them just like a plugin.
EVERYTHING in my sidebars are widgets if you want any idea what all they can do.
I’m beginning to realize that — but here’s my problem. I am not set up to “create” these Widgets and preview them prior to going live — at least not yet anyway.
But I’m learning — just hard headed!
Well, heh, I just throw them on, go look at the live set, and if I don’t like them, I pop them out *laugh*. It’s so fast, and easy, to do, your readers probably won’t even noticing you do it.
Depending on your host, you may also be able to set up a second WP install to use as a test bed. Put it some place like joscafe.com/test and then you can play with a dummy copy to experiment with. I actually have multiple dummy installs to experiment on all my different sites. Let’s you work out the bugs without bothering your visitors.
Just because a theme is widget ready doesn’t mean you have to utilize widgets. Widgets are drag & drop text boxes basically, in the admin panel you can rearrange and add new ones and it just is cleaner than going in and messing with the HTML in the sidebar template.
HOWEVER.
If you know what you’re doing in a template, and there are no widgets used, it defaults to whatever is in the sidebar.
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