The new widget management in WordPress 2.8 is greatly improved. You can drag widgets from the available widgets area to any widgetized sidebar, and edit the settings with a click of the little arrow. There’s no more annoying “Save” button for you to have to remember to click either.
The only problem? As soon as you drop a widget into a sidebar, it appears on your blog. That means one or two visitors might see an unconfigured widget before you have a chance to edit and save the settings. (This was brought to my attention recently by WP Weekly.)
Luckily, there’s a workaround…
Below the “Available Widgets” section, there’s a box marked “Inactive Widgets.” It serves as a holding ground for widgets you want to temporarily remove from display, but don’t want to reset their settings.
What you want to do is drag a widget from the Active Widgets box to the Inactive Widgets, where you will be able to edit the widget settings. Next, drag the widget to the sidebar. It takes a little bit of extra effort, but if you don’t want unconfigured widgets showing on your blog, it might be worth it to you.
