In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we cover the basics of using WordPress widgets.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure various WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Configure Sidebar Widgets
By default, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, filter posts by categories, RSS feed content, add tag clouds, etc.
(By default, your site comes with several pre-installed widgets)
How To Add And Configure Frequently-Used Widgets On The WordPress Sidebar: Tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial, we will add, configure and reorder various frequently-used WordPress widgets, including:
- Adding a clickable Support Contact graphic linking visitors to the support page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section to display your latest posts.
- Add a list of your site’s Pages.
- Display a list of useful Links on the sidebar.
- Adding an RSS Feed section.
- Add a Tag Cloud.
- Configure how Archived Posts display on your sidebar.
The Widgets section is located inside your WP administration area and can be accessed by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets section in your browser …
(Widgets Area)
Let’s start to configure some widgets …
Add A Text Widget To The Sidebar
Text widgets are quite 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)
A text widget lets you insert just about anything you want into your sidebar navigation area or other widget sections, such as quotes, image links, forms and more to your site … simply by typing in text or inserting HTML into the widget content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings …
(Text widgets are versatile!)
Example: Add A Clickable Support Button To Your Sidebar Section Using A Text Widget
For this example, we’ll set up a clickable contact button on your sidebar section 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, create or source a graphic image that you can use on your own site …
We’ll set up a clickable Help button to display at the top of the sidebar area like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display an image on your site, the image must be uploaded to your server. Upload the image to the images folder in your server and note the path to your image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
This information will be used in Step 3.
In order 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 your button graphic to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Add the contact page.
Create a contact page and note the page URL …
Step 3 – Create your text widget code.
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 for your clickable button.
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 above 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 page and image URLs …
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:
Now, go back into your Widgets area …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you would like your support button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, select the 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 WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure the text widget settings.
Click on the widget title bar to configure the widget 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 the widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the text area, then click Save when done …
Note: Remember to test your contact page and image URLs before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or the button won’t work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If adding text without formatting tags like paragraph breaks, you may want to tick the Automatically add paragraphs box to wrap each block of text in paragraphs (note: not required if you type in HTML code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs box not selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs box unchecked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box selected)
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Step 6 – Refresh your browser.
Once you have added your widget and HTML code, visit your site and refresh the browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then the support button should display in your sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)
The above screenshot shows a clickable button in the sidebar of a newly-installed WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the widget.
The final step is to ensure that your destination link works. Test this by clicking on the graphic button. If you are taken to your support page, then the text widget has been set up correctly …
(Test your text widget to make sure you’ve set everything up correctly)
Useful Tips:
If you would like the contact page to open inside a new window when visitors click on the help (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), then change the code from this:
To this (i.e. include the part that says: target=”_blank” in the html code):
When inserting images into your sidebar navigation menu, make sure that the width of your image does not exceed the width of your sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. Note that some themes may 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 your button images, then you may need to either adjust the graphic size, or the column width to make images display correctly on your theme.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
More Tips:
- If you don’t want your button 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 align to the left.
- Link your contact button to any destination you like (e.g. to an external site, contact form, forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the links in the widget.
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This is the end of part 2 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to view the rest of this tutorial:
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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