In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we cover the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this section you are going to begin configuring a number of frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Configure Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several preinstalled widgets, such as widgets for displaying links to your site’s pages, recent posts, news items, adding search features, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several built-in widgets)
Setting Up Sidebar Widgets: Tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial series, you will add, configure and reorder a number of commonly-used WordPress widgets, including:
- Add a Help graphic linking to your contact page.
- Add a Categories section.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of the site’s main Pages.
- Display important Links on your sidebar navigation menu.
- Add an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a Tag Cloud section.
- Add and configure an Archives section to the sidebar menu.
The Widgets area is located inside the administration area by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets screen in your browser …
(Widgets Screen)
Let’s get started …
Text Widgets
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 can be used to add policies, maps and directions, scripts and more to your site … just type in text or add HTML into the content area. You can also add an optional title in the Title field. Remember to save your settings when done …
(Text widgets are very useful!)
Example: Using A Text Widget To Add A Contact Button To Your Sidebar Area
For this example, we’ll set up a clickable help button on your sidebar menu that takes 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 visitors can click on …
We’ll set up a clickable button to display at the top of the sidebar menu 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 the image to a folder on 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.
For someone to be taken to your contact page when the help button is clicked, 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 contact page.
Create a contact page on your site and note its URL …
Step 3 – Create your text widget code.
Don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. Basically, you just need to create the instructions linking the button image to the destination URL.
Your code can be typed into a plain text editor 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 with the URL of your image location.
The screenshot 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 your text file content to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help with basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Next, go back into your Widgets panel …
(Widgets Area)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you want your 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 it at the very top of the Widget Area …
(Drag and drop your Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget settings.
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 the save button …
Add a title to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination links into the text area, then click the save button …
Note: Remember to test all URLs before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or the button won’t work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If 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: not required if you’re pasting in code like we’re using in the example for this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box not selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs box not checked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs box checked)
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Step 6 – Refresh your web browser.
Once you have added the text widget and code content, visit your site and refresh your web browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then your support button will display at the top of the site’s sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)
The above screenshot shows ’click for help’ button in the sidebar of a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the widget.
The final step is to make sure that your destination URL works. Test this by clicking the button. If you are taken to the contact page, then your text widget has been set up correctly …
(Test your clickable button)
Text Widgets – Useful Tips:
If you would like your support page to open in a new window when visitors click on the support (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), then change the text widget code from this:
To this (i.e. include the part containing target=”_blank” in your text widget code):
When choosing images for your sidebar section, 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 may display elements differently depending on their templates and their layout. Some sidebars may be too wide or too narrow. If your theme’s sidebar is narrower than the width of the button images, then you may need to either adjust the size of your images, or the column width to make images display correctly on your sidebar.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
Extra Tips:
- If you don’t want your button image to be centered inside your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the HTML code. The image will then be aligned to its default settings (normally left-aligned).
- Link your support button to any destination you want (e.g. to an external link, helpdesk, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the links in your text widget.
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This is the end of part two of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to access the rest of this tutorial series:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group