Why is Zone Index Disabled for Some Web-Parts?

Question

Salve! In my Sharepoint Server 2010 site, I have subsite with some webparts on it. There is only one web-part zone, and the page is a wiki page. However, I want web-part #1 to appear below web-part #2. Normally, one would do this by changing the "Web-part zone". However, my property fields are grayed out in edit mode, but I also see that "AllowZoneChange" is marked to true.

How can I enable the zone-index field? What caused the field to be disabled?

Answer 1

It is disabled on Wiki pages, because its not really a web part zone, but a rich-text editor. However you can move the web parts by using Drag&Drop.

Answer 2

This doesnt happen with all web parts on this page? I was thinking that maybe the web part zone was configured to disallow moving the web part. Is there only one web part zone on the page? If there is only one web part zone then the options would be grayed out to change the zone, but should show for positioning. What type of page is it? (Wiki, page layout, blank web part zone)

Answer 3

Zone Index affects the order of web parts that are in the same Zone in a web part page, but in a wiki page, this parameter is not applicable because web parts are "inline" with the wikitext in each zone - an index alone would not be sufficient to indicate the proper positioning for the renderer.

But, since it's a wiki page, you can switch to a different Text Layout using the command in the Format Text ribbon, which will create additional text zones. If you choose a layout with a header and/or footer, that might give you a way to move one web part to a lower zone with powershell.

See also How to change the Wiki Page Layout in SharePoint 2010 using Powershell?