In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained the basics of how to use WordPress widgets.
In this section you will learn how to configure various frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Configuring Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets that can be used out of the box with minimal to no configuration required, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, newsfeeds, adding site search features, etc.
(By default, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets)
Setting Up Commonly-Used Widgets On Your Blog Sidebar: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will add, configure and reorder a number of commonly-used widgets, including:
- Add a clickable Support Contact graphic button linking to the support page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section to display the latest posts.
- Add a list of the site’s most important Pages.
- Display useful Links on the sidebar.
- Display news items using an RSS Feed section.
- Adding clickable tags with a Tag Cloud section.
- Adding and configuring an Archives section to your sidebar.
To access the Widgets panel go to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings you to the Widgets panel in your browser window …
(Widgets Panel)
Let’s start by learning how to configure text widgets …
Add A Text Widget To The Sidebar
Text widgets are quite useful …
(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 let you insert just about anything you want into your sidebar navigation menu or other widget sections, such as lists of favorite items, videos, messages and more to your site … simply type in text or insert HTML into the widget content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings when done …
(Text widgets are really useful!)
Example: Add A Clickable Help Button To The Sidebar Area Using A Text Widget
For this example, we’ll set up a clickable support button on the sidebar that will take 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, you will need to create or source a graphic image that your visitors can click on …
We’ll set up a clickable button to display at the top of the sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display the clickable image on your site, the image must be uploaded to your server. Upload your button image to your server and write down the path to your image location.
For example …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
This information will be used in Step 3.
For visitors to go to the contact page when the support button gets clicked, you must either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will link the button graphic to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Add the destination page.
Create a contact page and note its 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, you just need to create the instructions for your clickable image.
Your instructions can be typed into a plain text file and should 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 above with the URL of your image location.
The screenshot below shows which sections of the above sample code you will need to replace with the actual contact details …
Replace the above URLs and then copy the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help figuring out basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Next, go back into your Widgets section …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you would like the support button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, find the Text widget …
(Text widget)
Drag the Text widget to your Active Widgets section and release the widget at the very top of the Widget Area …
(Drag-and-drop your WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure its settings. Paste the code with the links to your contact page and graphic button into the text widget content area and click save …
Add a title section to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Help”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the Content box, then click the save button …
Note: Make sure to test all links before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or your button will not work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If you’re adding text without formatting tags, you may want to tick the Automatically add paragraphs box to wrap each block of text in paragraphs (note: not required if you paste in HTML code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs option not ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box not selected)
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs option checked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option checked)
***
Step 6 – Refresh your browser.
Once you have added the widget and content, go to your site and refresh your web browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then the clickable support button will display in the site’s sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)
The screenshot above shows the contact button in the sidebar of a newly-installed WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test your button.
The final step is to ensure that your links work. Test the button to make sure that your visitors will go to the help page when clicking the button. You should be taken to the support page …
(Test the clickable button)
Text Widgets – Useful Tips:
If you want your support page to open in a new window when visitors click on the help (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the text widget code from this:
To this (i.e. insert the part containing target=”_blank” in the html code):
When choosing images for your sidebar area, 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. As mentioned earlier, 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 images, then you may have to either adjust the image size, or the width of your sidebar column to make elements display correctly on your sidebar section.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
Extra Tips:
- If you don’t want your image to be centered in your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the line of code. The image will then be aligned to its default settings (normally left-aligned).
- You can link the contact button to any destination you like (e.g. to an external site, helpdesk, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by replacing the code inside your widget.
***
This is the end of part two of this tutorial series.
To keep reading, click this link:
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)