Configure widgets and menu panels

Use Settings → POM Tweaks → White labelling → Widgets to simplify a site's widget controls, use the classic widgets editor, or hide source panels in the classic menu editor. These are three independent controls. On multisite, configure each site separately; these settings do not appear in Network Admin.

You need permission to manage POM Tweaks and edit the site's appearance. Widget discovery requires a theme with widget areas; menu discovery requires access to Appearance → Menus. These controls do not add those features to a theme that does not provide them.

Hide selected widgets

1. Enable Hide selected widgets and click the page's Save button.
2. Click Discover widget types. The list comes from the real Widgets screen for your current account, including types registered by the theme and plugins.
3. Check the types to hide. Each row includes its identifier to distinguish similar names.
4. Click Save selection inside that chooser.
5. Open Appearance → Widgets in a fresh request and verify the result.

Checked types are hidden in the classic Widgets screen, including controls for existing instances, and omitted from the Legacy Widget block's choices. Existing sidebar assignments, widget settings and frontend output remain intact. The control changes presentation, not permissions; it does not prevent other tools from managing widgets.

Native blocks are separate from legacy widget types. For example, hiding the Calendar widget does not disable the Calendar block. Existing Legacy Widget blocks are not deleted or converted. A plugin that registers multiple widget objects using the same PHP class shares one visibility selection for that class.

The chooser keeps previously selected types that are no longer registered. Leave them checked to retain the rule if their provider returns, or uncheck them and save to remove it. Rediscover after activating or deactivating a widget provider. Hidden types remain discoverable.

Use the classic widgets editor

Enable Classic widgets editor and click Save. Reopen Appearance → Widgets to use the native classic editor instead of the block widgets editor. The setting also affects WordPress's choice of widget editor in the Customizer where that interface is available.

This setting does not alter post editing, the Site Editor, theme support, widget areas or saved widget content. Existing Block widgets remain stored and are not converted into other widget types. Disable the control and save to return to the editor selected by WordPress, the theme and other plugins.

Hide selected menu panels

Menu panels are the boxes used to add pages, posts, custom links, taxonomy terms or extension items to a classic navigation menu. They are separate from sidebar widgets and navigation blocks.

1. Enable Hide selected menu panels and click Save.
2. Click Discover menu panels.
3. Select the panels to hide and click Save selection inside that chooser.
4. Reopen Appearance → Menus. The selected panels should be absent, while existing menu items and other panels remain available.

Discovery uses the real Menus screen, so it can include custom post types, taxonomies, WooCommerce and other extension panels rather than a fixed list. The current user's permissions and active providers determine what can be discovered. Previously selected unavailable panels remain listed for recovery. The selection applies to users of this site; it does not change their permissions or remove existing menu items.

Saving and recovery

The page Save button controls activation. Each Save selection button saves only its own list. If a list changes in another session, saving an older version is refused; rediscover and review the current selection before saving again.

To restore an individual entry, discover the list, uncheck it and use Save selection. To restore the full interface temporarily, disable the relevant control and use the page Save button; its stored selections remain available when you enable it again.

If discovery fails, reload the settings page to refresh your session and check access to the target screen. Theme-management restrictions can block Appearance → Widgets or Appearance → Menus. On a block theme without these screens, use its native Site Editor; these controls do not create classic screens or manage navigation blocks.

See also Restrict theme management, Hide Dashboard widgets and Tour the interface.