In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we cover the basics of using widgets in WordPress.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure several sidebar widgets in WordPress.
How To Configure Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of preinstalled active widgets, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, news items, adding site search features, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several active widgets)
Configuring Widgets On The WordPress Sidebar: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial series, you are going to learn how to add, configure and reorder various widgets, including:
- Adding a clickable Support Contact image linking visitors to the help page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of Pages.
- Display a list of useful Links on the sidebar.
- Add an RSS Feed section.
- Add a Tag Cloud.
- Configure how your Archived Posts display on the sidebar area.
To access the Widgets panel log into the dashboard and go to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets panel in your web browser …
(Widgets Section)
Let’s get started …
Add A Text Widget To Your Sidebar Area
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 can be used to add instructions, maps and directions, 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 really useful!)
Example: Use A Text Widget To Add A Clickable Contact Button To Your Sidebar Section
For this example, let’s set up a clickable contact button on the sidebar navigation 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 graphic image that you will want your visitors to click on …
We’ll set up a clickable Help button to display at the top of your sidebar navigation menu like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
Upload the graphic image to the images folder in your server and note the path to your server’s 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 the contact page when they click on the graphic button, you will need to either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will link your button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Add the contact page.
Create a contact page and note its 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, you just need to create the instructions linking your button image to the contact page.
Your code can be written 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 above with the URL of your image location.
The screenshot below shows which sections of the above code you need to replace with your actual web addresses …
Replace the above URLs and then copy all of your text file content to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help understanding basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Go back to your Widgets panel …
(Widgets Area)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you want the button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, select the Text widget …
(Text widget)
Drag your Text widget to the Active Widgets section and release the widget at the top of the Widget Area …
(Dragging and dropping your WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure the text widget settings.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure its options. Paste the code with the URLs to your contact page and graphic button into the text widget content area and click the save button …
Add a heading to the widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination links into the Content area, then click the save button …
Note: Remember to check 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 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 an HTML paragraph code (note: this is not necessary if you’re pasting in code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box not checked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option unchecked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option selected …
(Automatically add paragraphs option ticked)
***
Step 6 – Refresh the web browser.
After adding your widget and code content, go to your site and refresh your web browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then the support button should display at the top of the sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)
The screenshot above shows ’click for help’ button added to a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the widget.
The final step is to make sure that your links work. Test this by clicking on the support button. You should be taken directly to your contact page …
(Test the clickable button)
Tips:
If you want your contact page to display inside a new window when visitors click on the support (so they don’t leave the page they’re on), then change the code from this:
To this (i.e. add the section that says: target=”_blank” in your code):
When choosing images for your sidebar navigation area, 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 can display elements differently depending on their templates and their layout. Some sidebars are wide and some are narrow. If your theme’s sidebar width is narrower than the width of your graphic images, then you may have to either adjust the graphic size, or the column width to make the images display correctly on your sidebar.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
Extra Tips:
- If you don’t want your image to be centered 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.
- Link the support button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external link, contact form, forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the links in the widget.
***
This is the end of section two of this series of tutorials.
To continue, click here:
***
"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