In Part 1 of this tutorial, we cover the basics of using widgets in WordPress.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure several WordPress widgets.
How To Configure Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several preinstalled widgets that can be used out of the box with little to no configuration needed, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, RSS feed content, adding search features, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets)
How To Add Widgets To Your Sidebar Menu: Tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to add, configure and reorder s number of widgets, including:
- Add a clickable Help graphic button linking to your contact page.
- Add a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Add a Recent Posts section to display your latest posts.
- Adding a list of your site’s main Pages.
- Display a list of useful Links on your sidebar.
- Display newsfeeds using an RSS Feed section.
- Add a list of clickable tags with a Tag Cloud.
- Adding and configuring an Archives section to your sidebar.
The Widgets panel is located in your WordPress administration area and can easily be accessed by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings up the Widgets screen in your browser …
(Widgets Area)
Let’s start by configuring a text widget …
Adding Text Widgets To Your Blog Sidebar
Text widgets are 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)
A text widget can be used to add lists of favorite items, image links, messages and more to your site … simply by typing in text or pasting HTML into the widget content area. You can also add an optional title in the Title field. Remember to save your settings …
(A text widget is very useful!)
Example: Use A Text Widget To Add A Help Button To The Sidebar Navigation Menu
For this example, let’s set up a clickable help button on your sidebar navigation menu that will take your 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 “help button” graphic image that you will want your your visitors to click on …
We’ll set up a clickable button to display at the top of your sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display the clickable image on your site, the button image must be uploaded to your server. Upload the button graphic to your server and note the URL pointing to your image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will need this information in Step 3.
For someone to go to your contact page when they click on the help button, you must 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 – Create a support page.
Create a contact page on your site and note the page URL …
Step 3 – Create your text widget code.
If you’re not a technical-minded person, don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. Basically, we just need to create the instructions linking your graphic image to the contact page/helpdesk.
Your instructions can be written a plain text editor and will look something like this …
- Replace “http://www.yourdomain.com/contact-us” in the code above with the URL of your contact page location.
- Replace “http://yourimagelocation.com/img/supportbutton.jpg” in the code with the URL of your image location.
The image below shows which sections of the above code you need to replace with the actual web addresses …
Replace the above URLs and then copy the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help with basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Now, go back to your Widgets section …
(Widgets Area)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you want the support button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, find a Text widget …
(Text widget)
Drag your Text widget to your Active Widgets section and release it at the top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure its options. Paste the code with the links to your contact page and graphic button into the text widget content area and click the save button …
Add a heading to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the text area, then click Save when done …
Note: Make sure to check all links before pasting scripts into your Text Widget, or your clickable button will not work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If adding text without formatting tags, you may want to tick the Automatically add paragraphs box to wrap each block of text in an HTML paragraph code (note: this is not necessary if you paste in formatted HTML content like we’re using in the example for this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box not ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box not ticked)
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs option ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box checked)
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Step 6 – Refresh the browser.
Once you have added the widget and formatted content, visit your site and refresh your web browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then your support button should display at the top of the site’s sidebar menu …
(Clickable button widget on blog sidebar)
The screenshot above shows the support button added to a newly-installed WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the button.
The last step is to make sure that the destination URL works. Test this by clicking the button. If you are taken to your support page, then the text widget has been set up correctly …
(Test your clickable button to ensure you’ve set up everything correctly)
Text Widgets – Useful Tips:
If you want a new browser window to open up when visitors go to your support page (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the button code from this:
To this (i.e. add the part containing target=”_blank” in the text widget code):
When choosing images to add to your sidebar navigation section, make sure that the width of the image does not exceed the width of your 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 their layout. Some sidebars may be wider or narrower. If the sidebar of your theme is narrower than the width of the button image, then you may need to either adjust the graphic size, or the width of your sidebar column to make the images display correctly on your sidebar area.
(Make sure the width of the image does not exceed the width of the sidebar column)
More Tips:
- If you don’t want to center the image inside your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the line of code. The image will then align to the left.
- You can link your contact button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external link, contact form, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the links in the widget.
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This is the end of section 2 of this tutorial series about using WordPress widgets.
To continue, click this link:
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