Editing a Widget- Changing the Meta Widget in WordPress

Editing the Meta data in WordPress Sidebar Widget

By default the meta widget in WordPress have links going out to WordPress as will as some RSS links to feed and feed comments. You can edit these, add links or remove them- but they sure don’t make it easy for the average blogger.

How to Remove Links in Meta Widget

This took a bit of digging and wasn’t as simple as I thought first time around. You want to edit file called widget.php .
Depending on what theme you have you may even have more than one file by that name.

Look for the widget.php file in wp-includes. You can edit this in most cases from your FTP client. Usually just have to right click and edit, then save ( will save to a temp file or your hard drive- NOT your server- stills need to be uploaded) . It will then ask if you want to upload/change/edit. Say yes.

Tips for Editing Widgets… ( or any other file on your server)

Save an original copy of the file you are editing SOMEWHERE. In case you make a mistake. Guaranteed the one time you don’t do it will be the time you screw it up. Ask me. I know.

What To Do When You have Made a Mistake

If you make a big mistake when editing a WordPress theme or widget ( note to self- do not do any theme or any kind of major overhauls at 3am) and site is a mess and you can’t fix- try going to the original folder on your hard drive. Make sure you are using RIGHT version. Upload the problem file and overwrite. i.e If you have totally messed up header in your them- find them and upload just the header.php file ( or whatever file is problem)

Sometimes you can recover lost code by going to the Google cached version of a page and retrieving code there.

Make a habit when you do any kind of a major tweak to download and save your theme/files in case of a problem. no one ever PLANS to make a mistake.

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