I wanted to add a widget to a page without changing the custom page template file and without creating a new custom page template. I thought maybe I can just add a shortcode for the widget into the page through WordPress? Google is amazing because whatever question I am having during this learning process there’s always been someone else wanting to do the same and many answers. I found a plugin that allows you to do this called amr shortcode any widget. The process is a little bit long-winded and I think things can become disorganised having all different procedures for adding content to the site, so I’m not completely convinced yet this is ideal. But the plugin gets high marks and 40,000 + installs so I trusted to use it.  I have to say and when I added images from the gallery, there have been moments that the image doesn’t update inside my widget in the page straight away.

Here is a useful, instructional post on the plugin:

http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-add-wordpress-widgets-in-post-and-page-content/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/amr-shortcode-any-widget/

From:

Add a widget to a page with a shortcode