Post Rock Public Library

Widgets can make Web sites more useful and fun. This Web site contains several examples.

• On the left sidebar, Search retrieves all pages on this Web site containing a specific word.
• On the left sidebar, My Calendar "event roll" lists events posted on Post Rock Public Library's online Kiko Calendar.
• On the Location and contact page, a map shows the location of the library.
  
• Under What's New?, Games provides 5 online games.

Widgets come from a variety of online sources.

• Most of the widgets on this Web site are from Widgetbox at www.widgetbox.com
• The search box for the Web site is from BTemplates at blogger-templates.blogspot.com/search/label/widgets
  
• The search box for book reviews is from Google gadgets. Book-related widgets.
  
• The My Calendar event roll on the sidebar is available on Kiko's Web site.

Adding Widgets easy.

• Videos about Widgetbox and Google Gadgets: video 1, video 2,
• Widgetbox help provides explanations and step-by-step help in installing widgets.
  
• Google gadget help is a FAQ that includes step-by-step instructions.
  

The basic steps are find a widget that does what you want, copy the coding, paste the coding on the Web site where the widget is supposed to be.













On a sidebar widget, paste coding into a Text or HTML/Javascript page elements. If I want to add text with the widget I use a Text page element.


Widgets that pull information from other Web sites (e.g., My Calendar event role, map, games) must retrieve that information every time the Web page is displayed. This slows down the loading of those pages. Too many widgets on a page really slows down the page. Therefore, I recommend no more than 2 information-retrieving widgets to a page including the sidebar. The sidebar on this Web site has two widgets, but only the My Calendar event roll retrieves information from another Web site.