In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure a number of sidebar widgets in WordPress.
Widget Configuration
By default, your site comes with several built-in widgets that can be used out of the box with minimal to no configuration required, such as widgets for displaying external links, filter posts by categories, RSS feed content, adding a search box, etc.
(By default, your site comes with several preinstalled widgets)
Adding Sidebar Widgets In WordPress: Tutorial
In this tutorial, we are going to add, configure and reorder various commonly-used widgets to display in your site’s sidebar navigation area, including:
- Add a clickable Support Contact graphic button linking visitors to the contact page.
- Adding a Categories section.
- Add a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of the site’s main Pages.
- Display a list of useful Links on the sidebar navigation menu.
- Display newsfeeds with an RSS Feed section.
- Adding clickable tags through a Tag Cloud.
- Adding and configuring an Archives section to your sidebar.
To access the Widgets panel log into your dashboard and go to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings up the Widgets panel in your browser …
(Widgets Panel)
Let’s begin by learning how to configure a WordPress text widget …
Text Widgets
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)
A text widget lets you insert just about anything you want into the sidebar or other widget sections, such as lists, ads, news and updates and more to your site … just type in text or add 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 extremely versatile!)
Example: Using A Text Widget To Add A Clickable Help Button To The Sidebar Section
For this example, let’s set up a help button on your 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, you will need to create or source a graphic image that visitors can click on …
We’ll set up the clickable Help button to display at the top of your sidebar menu like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display the image on your site, first you must upload the button image to your server’s images folder and write down the path to your image location.
For example …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will need this information in Step 3.
For visitors to be taken 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 image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create a support page.
Create a contact page on your site and note down its URL …
Step 3 – Compose your text widget code.
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 your destination URL.
Your instructions can be composed in 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 code you will need to replace with the actual contact page and image URLs …
Replace the above URLs and then copy the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help understanding basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Now, go back into your Widgets panel …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you want your button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, find a Text widget …
(WordPress 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 Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure the widget.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure its settings. Paste the code with the URLs to your contact page and graphic button into your text widget content area and click the save button …
Add a title to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Help”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination links into the Content box, then click the save button …
Note: Remember to test your contact page and image URLs before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or your clickable button won’t 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: this is not necessary if you type in formatted HTML content like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs option not selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs option not ticked)
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs box ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option selected)
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Step 6 – Refresh the browser.
Once you have added your text widget and content, go to your site and refresh your web browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then the support button will display at the top of the site’s sidebar menu …
(Clickable button widget on blog sidebar)
The screenshot above shows a clickable button in the sidebar of a newly-installed WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test your button.
The last step is to make sure that your links work. Test this by clicking on the button. You should be taken directly to your support page …
(Test the text widget to make sure it works)
Tips:
If you want your contact page to display in a new window when visitors click on the support (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), 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 for your sidebar menu, make sure that the width of your image doesn’t exceed the width of your 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 layout. Some sidebars may be wider or narrower. If your theme’s sidebar width is narrower than the width of your graphic image, then you may have to either adjust the size of your images, or the column width to make elements display correctly on your sidebar area.
(Make sure that the width of the image does not exceed the sidebar column width)
Additional Tips:
- If you don’t want to center the 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 your contact button to any URL you want (e.g. to an external link, helpdesk, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by replacing the content in the text widget.
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This is the end of section two of this tutorial.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)