Very Confused About How Widgets Work (or don't)!
 

I have just installed the latest version Atahualpa, using WP 2.7.1. Both sidebars are visible and when I go to the widgets screen it says that neither have any widgets being used. My left sidebar is displaying Categories and Archives; the right is showing Links and Meta. None of these have an "Add" button by them in the widget screen. If I add a widget to a sidebar, the content that was there disappears and the widget shows correctly however I then have no way to display Links etc. Have I missed something blindingly obvious?

I upgraded to the latest version of WP which seems to have solved the problem.

WordPress by default displays several widgets UNTIL you add a widget to the sidebars. I think the logic is 'On a new install, you probally need these functions, but once you add a widget, you are taking control so we'll remove the default ones'

Hi :)

I'd managed to work that out from other threads, what threw me was once I activated a new widget the old ones vanished and there was no way to get them back on the side bar; they didn't have an Add button at the side of them like the others.

S

I'm new to WP and to coding. I understand the logic described but not clear how to fix. I have tried several themes; have used various widgets before activating Atahualpa.

With no widgets selected I have categories and archives on left sidebar; posts, search, recent posts, blogroll, and meta on the right sidebar. When I add widgets everything changes and some are duplicated.

I have tried earlier today this fix you described in related thread:delete FROM wp1_options WHERE option_name = 'bfa_widget_areas', following the directions there to no avail.

Is there a way to go back to a clean slate with respect to the widgets without reinstalling up?

Oh, the php on the server is v.5.2.9

Thanks,

Scott

Scott, what version of Atahualpa and WP?

Atahualpa 3.4.1; WP 2.8.2

Updated Atahualpa to 3.4.2 and that seems to have fixed it. Thought I had most recent version but when I wrote that I and checked realized I didn't.

Now, not getting duplicates and the widgets that were up are disappearing as replaced by my choices.

Thanks,
Scott

I have this same problem and I have the latest versions of WP and Atahualpa.

Adding to the right sidebar doesn't not make the so-called default items of Recent Posts, etc, go away.

The order in which sidebars are registered has changed in 3.4.1. That can lead to confusion when you had widgets in one of the new sidebars in version 3.4/3.4.01 and then started using 3.4.1. The names of the sidebars don't match anymore. Look through the sidebars and remove widgets that appear to be in the wrong sidebar, then add them again

O.k this takes some getting used to but I got it all to work out!