In Part One of this tutorial, we explained the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this section you will begin configuring a number of widgets in WordPress.
Configuring Sidebar Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several built-in widgets, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, newsfeeds, add tag clouds, etc.
(By default, your site comes with several pre-installed widgets)
Configuring Sidebar Widgets In WordPress In WordPress: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial series, we will add, configure and reorder various WordPress widgets, including:
- Add a Contact Us graphic linking to the support page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Add a list of Pages.
- Display useful Links on your sidebar navigation section.
- Displaying news items with an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a Tag Cloud section.
- Configure how your Archived Posts display on your sidebar.
To use widgets, access the Widgets section located inside your dashboard by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings up the Widgets panel in your web browser …
(Widgets Panel)
Let’s configure WordPress text widgets …
Adding Text Widgets
Text widgets are incredibly versatile …
(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 can be used to add events, ads, tips and more to your site … just by typing in text or adding HTML into the content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings …
(Text widgets are extremely versatile!)
Example: Add A Clickable Contact Button To Your Sidebar Section Using A Text Widget
For this example, let’s set up a contact button on the 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, you will need to create or source a “help button” graphic image that visitors can click on …
We’ll set up the clickable button to display at the top of the sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
Upload the graphic image to your server’s images folder and note the URL pointing to your server’s image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will use this information in Step 3.
In order for visitors to go to your contact page when the support button is clicked, either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will link the button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create your destination page.
Create a contact page on your site and note its URL …
Step 3 – Create 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. Basically, we just need to create the instructions linking the button image to the contact page.
Your code can be typed into 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 with the URL of your image location.
The image below shows the sections of the above sample code that you will need to replace with the actual web addresses …
Replace the above URLs and then copy all of the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help figuring out basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Now, go back to your Widgets panel …
(Widgets Screen)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar in the location where the support button should display.
In the Available Widgets area, select a Text widget …
(WordPress text widget)
Drag the Text widget to the Active Widgets section and release the widget at the top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure the text widget.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its options. Paste the code with the links to your contact page and graphic button into the text widget content area and click save …
Add a title section to the widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination URLs into the text area, then click the save button …
Note: Make sure to test your contact page and button image 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 paragraphs (note: this is not necessary if you’re typing in formatted HTML code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option unchecked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option not selected)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box ticked)
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Step 6 – Refresh the web browser.
Once you have added the text widget and content, go to your site and refresh your browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then your clickable support button should display in the site’s 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 final step is to ensure that the links work. Test the button to make sure that visitors will go to your support page when they click on the button. You should be taken directly to the support page …
(Test your text widget to ensure you’ve set everything up correctly)
Tips:
If you want a new browser window to open up when visitors click on the help button (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the text widget code from this:
To this (i.e. insert the part containing target=”_blank” in your code):
When adding images to your sidebar navigation menu, make sure that the width of your image doesn’t exceed the width of the sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. As we’ve previously mentioned, some themes can display elements differently depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars may be too wide or too narrow. If your theme’s sidebar is narrower than the width of the button image, then you may have to either adjust the graphic size, or the column width to make elements display correctly on your theme.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
More 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 align to the left.
- You can link the help button to any destination you want (e.g. to an external site, helpdesk, support forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the code in your text widget.
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This is the end of section 2 of this tutorial series.
To keep reading, click this link:
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