In Part One of this tutorial series, we cover the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this section you will configure a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Configuring Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several preinstalled widgets that can be used out of the box with minimal to no configuration needed, such as widgets that let you display links to your site’s pages, recent posts, RSS feed content, adding tag clouds, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of preinstalled widgets)
Configuring Frequently-Used WordPress Sidebar Widgets: Tutorial
In this tutorial, we are going to add, configure and reorder s number of widgets, including:
- Adding a clickable Help button linking visitors to your support page.
- Add a Categories section.
- Add a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of the site’s most important Pages.
- Display Links on the sidebar.
- Add an RSS Feed section.
- Add a Tag Cloud.
- Configure how your Archived Posts display on your sidebar.
The Widgets section is located inside the dashboard area by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets panel in your browser …
(Widgets Screen)
Let’s get started …
Adding Text Widgets To Your Sidebar Area
Text widgets are incredibly useful …
(WordPress 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, maps and directions, special promotions and more to your site … just type in text or add HTML into the widget content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings …
(A text widget is versatile!)
Example: Use A Text Widget To Add A Clickable Help Button To The Sidebar Menu
For this example, let’s set up a contact button on the sidebar 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, you will need to create or source a “help button” graphic image that you will want visitors to click on …
We’ll set up the clickable Help button to display at the top of the sidebar navigation area 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 graphic to the images folder in your server and note the URL pointing to your image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
This information will be required in Step 3.
In order for visitors to go to your contact page when they click on the support button, either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will then link your button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Add a support page.
Create a contact page on your site 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 linking the graphic image to the contact page/helpdesk.
Your instructions can be typed into a simple text editor 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 with the URL of your image location.
The image below shows which sections of the above code you need to replace with your actual contact details …
Replace the above URLs and then copy the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help with basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Next, go back to your Widgets section …
(Widgets Screen)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you would like the button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, find the Text widget …
(Text widget)
Drag your Text widget to your Active Widgets section and release the widget at the top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget settings.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings. 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 Help”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination links into the text area, then click Save when done …
Note: Make sure to check your contact page and button image URLs before pasting scripts into your Text Widget, or your button won’t work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If adding text with no 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 formatted HTML content like we’re using in the example for this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box unchecked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option unchecked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs box selected)
***
Step 6 – Refresh your browser.
Once you have added the text widget and formatted content, visit your site and refresh your browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then your support button should display at the top of your sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on sidebar)
The above screenshot shows the button in the sidebar of a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test your widget.
The last step is to make sure that your clickable button works. Test the button to make sure that your visitors will go to the help page when clicking the button. If you are taken to the contact page, then everything has been set up correctly …
(Test the clickable button)
Text Widgets – Useful Tips:
If you want your support page to open inside 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. add the part that says: target=”_blank” in the text widget code):
When adding images to your sidebar navigation area, make sure that the width of the image doesn’t exceed the width of your sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. As we’ve previously explained, some themes may display different column widths depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars are wide and some are narrow. If the sidebar of your theme is narrower than the width of your button image, then you may have to either adjust the size of your images, or the column width to make images display correctly on your sidebar section.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
Additional Tips:
- If you don’t want to center your image in the sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the HTML code. The image will then be left-aligned.
- You can link your support button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external link, contact form, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by replacing the links in the widget.
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This is the end of part two of this tutorial.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click this link:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum