In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure various WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Configure Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of pre-installed widgets, such as widgets that let you display external links, filter posts by categories, RSS feed content, adding a search box, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several pre-installed widgets)
How To Set Up Frequently-Used WordPress Widgets On The Sidebar: Tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial series, you will add, configure and reorder s number of WordPress widgets to display in the site’s sidebar navigation menu, including:
- Add a Support image linking to the help page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section to display your latest posts.
- Add a list of your site’s most important Pages.
- Display Links on the sidebar.
- Display news items using an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a Tag Cloud.
- Adding and configuring an Archives section to the sidebar.
To access the Widgets area log into your dashboard and go to Appearance > Widgets …
(Widgets Menu)
This brings up the Widgets section in your browser …
(Widgets Screen)
Let’s get started …
Adding Text Widgets To The Sidebar
Text widgets are incredibly versatile …
(Text widget)
Rich Text Widget
From version 4.8 onward, WordPress has added native rich-text editing capabilities to text widgets …
(Rich Text Widget)
This lets you quickly and easily format text, create lists, add emphasis, and insert links into your sidebar text …
(Format text easily with the new text widget)
Text widgets can be used to add article snippets, social media buttons, reviews and more to your site … just by typing in text or adding HTML into the content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings …
(Text widgets are really useful!)
Example: Add A Clickable Contact Button To Your Sidebar Area Using A Text Widget
For this example, let’s set up a support button on the sidebar navigation section that takes visitors to a page on your site (or an external site, e.g. a helpdesk) where they can contact you for help and support.
First, create or source a graphic image that your visitors can click on …
We’ll set up the clickable button to display at the top of the sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
Upload the graphic image to a folder on your server and note down the address of your image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will use this information in Step 3.
For someone to go to your contact page when they click on the graphic button, you will need to either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will then link the button graphic to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Add the destination page.
Create a contact page and note the page URL …
Step 3 – Compose the code for your text widget.
If you’re not a technical-minded person, don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. In simple terms, we just need to create the instructions for your clickable button.
Your instructions can be typed in a plain text file and should look something like this …
- Replace “http://www.yourdomain.com/contact-us” in the code with the URL of your contact page location.
- Replace “http://yourimagelocation.com/img/supportbutton.jpg” in the code above with the URL of your image location.
The screenshot below shows the sections of the above sample code that you will need to replace with your actual contact page and image URLs …
Replace the above URLs and then copy all of the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help understanding basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Next, go back into your Widgets screen …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar in the location where the support button should display.
In the Available Widgets area, find a Text widget …
(WordPress text widget)
Drag your Text widget to the Active Widgets section and release it at the top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget settings.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its options. Paste the code with the links to your contact page and graphic button into your text widget content area and click the save button …
Add a heading to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the Content area, then click the save button …
Note: Remember to test your contact page and button image URLs before pasting scripts into your Text Widget, or your button will not work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If adding text without formatting tags like paragraph breaks, you may want to tick the Automatically add paragraphs box to wrap each block of text in paragraphs (note: this is not necessary if you’re pasting in code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option unchecked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box not checked)
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs box checked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option selected)
***
Step 6 – Refresh your web browser.
Once you have added the widget and formatted content, visit the front end of your site and refresh the web browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then the clickable support button will display in your sidebar menu …
(Clickable button widget on sidebar)
The above screenshot shows the button in the sidebar of a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the widget.
The final step is to make sure that the links work. Test this by clicking on the graphic button. If you are taken directly to the contact page, then everything has been set up correctly …
(Test your clickable button to make sure you’ve set everything up correctly)
Useful Tips:
If you would like a new window to open up when visitors click on the help button (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), then change the button code from this:
To this (i.e. add the section containing target=”_blank” in the html code):
When choosing images for your sidebar section, make sure that the width of your image does not exceed the width of the sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. Note that some themes can display elements differently depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars may be too wide or too narrow. If the sidebar of your theme is narrower than the width of your graphic image, then you may have to either adjust the image size, or the column width to make graphics display correctly on your sidebar area.
(Make sure that the image width does not exceed the width of the sidebar column)
Additional Tips:
- If you don’t want the button to be centered inside your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the code. The image will then be left-aligned.
- You can link your support button to any URL you want (e.g. to an external site, contact form, forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the content in the text widget.
***
This is the end of section two of this series of tutorials about using WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com