In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained the basics of how to use WordPress widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure a number of WordPress widgets.
Configuring Frequently-Used WordPress Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, newsfeeds, filter content by tags, etc.
(By default, your site comes with several active widgets)
How To Set Up Sidebar Widgets In WordPress In WordPress: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial series, we are going to add, configure and reorder a number of frequently-used widgets, including:
- Adding a clickable Help graphic linking visitors to the support page.
- Adding a Categories section.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Add a list of the site’s Pages.
- Display important Links on the sidebar navigation menu.
- Add an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a list of clickable tags with a Tag Cloud section.
- Add and configure an Archives section to the sidebar.
The Widgets panel is located in your WP admin area and can be easily accessed by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings up the Widgets section in your browser …
(Widgets Area)
Let’s start configuring your widgets …
Add A Text Widget
Text widgets are incredibly 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)
A text widget can be used to add policies, images, special promotions and more to your site … just 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 when done …
(A text widget is really versatile!)
Example: Use A Text Widget To Add A Clickable Help Button To Your Sidebar Navigation Area
For this example, let’s set up a clickable help button on the sidebar 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 graphic image that you will use on your own site …
We’ll set up the clickable button to display at the top of your sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display the image on your site, the image must be uploaded to your server. Upload your image to your server and note the address of your image location.
For example …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will use this information in Step 3.
For visitors to be taken to the contact page when the graphic button gets clicked, either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will link your button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create the destination page.
Create a contact page and note the page URL …
Step 3 – Compose your text widget code.
Don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. Basically, we just need to create the instructions linking the graphic image to your contact page/helpdesk.
Your instructions can be composed in a simple text file and will 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 image below shows which sections of the above sample code you need to replace with your actual contact details …
Replace the above URLs and then copy all of the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help with basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Go back into your Widgets screen …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you want the clickable 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 the widget at the very top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget settings.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure the widget 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 title section to the widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the Content area, then click the save button …
Note: Make sure to test all links before pasting scripts into your Text Widget, or the button will not work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If you’re adding text with no formatting tags like paragraph breaks, 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 type in code like we’re using in the example for this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box not checked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option unchecked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box ticked)
***
Step 6 – Refresh the browser.
Once you have added your text widget and code content, visit the front-end of your site and refresh your web browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then your support button will display at the top of your sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on sidebar)
The screenshot above shows ’click for help’ button in the sidebar navigation area of a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test your button.
The final step is to make sure that your links work. Test the button to make sure that your visitors will go to your help page when clicking the graphic image. If you are taken directly to the support page, then your text widget has been set up correctly …
(Test your clickable button)
Useful Tips:
If you would like the contact page to open in a new window when visitors click on the help (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), then change the button code from this:
To this (i.e. include the part containing target=”_blank” in the html code):
When inserting images into your sidebar navigation area, make sure that the width of the image doesn’t exceed the width of the sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. Note that some themes can display different column widths 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 have to either adjust the size of your images, or the column width to make the images display correctly on your theme.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
More Tips:
- If you don’t want to center your button in your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the code. The image will then be aligned to its default settings (normally left-aligned).
- Link the contact button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external link, contact form, forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the links inside the widget.
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This is the end of section two of this tutorial series on how to use Widgets.
To continue, click here:
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"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)