---
title: Customizing pages using widgets
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

In the **Pages** application, view the **Home** page on the **Design** tab. The **Left zone** and **Right zone** zones have the **(Editor)** prefix before their name.

![Widget zones on the Home page](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/customizing-pages-using-widgets/Design_Widget_Zones.png "Widget zones on the Home page")

This identifies zones that contain widgets rather than web parts. Widgets are components placed into page template zones just like web parts, but they provide the option of page customization for various kinds of website users, not just administrators and designers. The two widget zones on the Home page are configured to allow customization by page editors. You can manage the content of the zones when editing pages on the **Page** tab of the **Pages** application.

Switch over to the **Page** tab, click the menu icon () in the corner of one of the widget zones and then click **Add new widget** in the menu.

The **Select widget** dialog opens. The dialog is similar to the web part selection dialog, but with less items available. This is because every widget is based on an existing web part. Select the **Content -> Latest blog posts** widget and click **Select.**

![Selecting a widget](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/customizing-pages-using-widgets/Selecting_Widget.png "Selecting a widget")

Enter the following values into the widget's properties:

- **Widget container**: Black box
- **Widget container title**: Latest blog posts

Leave the remaining properties in their default state and click **Save & Close**.

> **Note:** The widget appears on the page, but is NOT permanently saved yet. When working with widgets on the **Page** tab, you need to click **Save** again on the page itself to confirm changes.

After you save the page, switch to **Preview** mode using the main toolbar to view the modified design of the home page. As you can see, content editors can alter pages with widget zones.

![Widget displaying blog posts on the website](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/customizing-pages-using-widgets/Widget_Result.png "Widget displaying blog posts on the website")

Now we will try out a different type of widget zone. Switch back to **Edit** mode and the **Design** tab. Expand the menu () of the **Right zone** and click **Configure** in the menu.

Set the **Widget zone** **type** property to **User personalization** and click **Save & Close**. The zone is now editable by _**registered users**_ directly on the live site.

> **Note:** **Note**: The system removes the content of a zone when you change the zone type.

View the live site (click the Kentico logo on the header to open the application list and click **Live site**). On the Home page, hover over the location of the right zone and click **Add new widget**.

![Adding a user widget on the live site](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/customizing-pages-using-widgets/Add_User_Widgets.png "Adding a user widget on the live site")

Select the **Content -> Latest news** widget and click **Select**. In the properties dialog, leave the default values and click **Save & Close**. Changes made to widgets in user zones apply immediately — users on the live site do not need to save the page manually.

![Latest news widget displaying content on the live site](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/customizing-pages-using-widgets/User_Widget_Result.png "Latest news widget displaying content on the live site")

The content of user widget zones does not affect the global appearance of the page. Each user can only see their own personalized version of the user zones on pages. Log off the website and log in as a different user (enter the username **Andy** with a blank password). View the home page on the live site, and you can see that the zone is displaying the default content (empty in this case). The widget previously added under the administrator account is not visible. Every user can choose their own content for the zone from the available selection of widgets.

Log off and sign back in as the global administrator (username **administrator)**.

> **Info:** **Managing widgets on the Design tab**
>
> You can add and configure widgets of all types directly on the **Design** tab of the **Pages** application. This sets the **default** content of widget zones for the template. The content displayed on pages does NOT match the default content once users make changes to the widget zones.