In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.
In this tutorial you will begin configuring a number of commonly-used widgets in WordPress.
How To Configure Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of preinstalled widgets that can be used out of the box with minimal to no configuration needed, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, recent posts, news items, add site search features, etc.
(By default, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets)
Adding Sidebar Widgets In WordPress: Tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial series, you will add, configure and reorder various WordPress widgets, including:
- Adding a Help graphic linking visitors to the support page.
- Adding a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Add a list of the site’s most important Pages.
- Display useful Links on your sidebar section.
- Display news items with an RSS Feed section.
- Add a list of clickable tags using a Tag Cloud.
- Configure how your Archived Posts display on the sidebar.
The Widgets panel is located inside your WP admin area and can be accessed by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets panel in your web browser …
(Widgets Section)
Let’s begin configuring some sidebar widgets …
Add A Text Widget
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 lets you insert just about anything you want into the sidebar or other widget sections, such as policies, videos, tips and more to your site … simply by typing in text or adding 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 really versatile!)
Example: Add A Support Button To Your Sidebar Area Using A Text Widget
For this example, let’s set up a clickable support button on your sidebar 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, create or source a “help button” graphic image that your visitors can click on …
We’ll set up the clickable button to display at the top of your sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
Upload the graphic image to a folder on your server and write down the URL pointing to your server’s image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will need this information in Step 3.
For visitors to go to the contact page when the support button is clicked, 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 the button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create your destination page.
Create a contact page and note down 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. Basically, you just need to create the instructions linking your button image to the destination URL.
Your code can be written a simple 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 image below shows the sections of the above sample code that you will 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 understanding basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Now, go back to your Widgets screen …
(Widgets Panel)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar in the location where your button should display.
In the Available Widgets area, select the Text widget …
(Text widget)
Drag your Text widget to the Active Widgets section and release it at the top of the Widget Area …
(Drag and drop your WordPress text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your 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 your text widget content area and click save …
Add a title to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct destination links into the Content area, then click Save when done …
Note: Remember to check your contact page and button image URLs before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or the 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: not required if you’re typing in formatted HTML code like we’re doing in this tutorial).
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs box unchecked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option not checked)
Here is some text added to a Text widget with Automatically add paragraphs option ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box checked)
***
Step 6 – Refresh your browser.
After adding your widget and code content, visit your site and refresh your browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then the clickable support button should display in your site’s sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)
The screenshot above shows the button added to a newly-installed WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the widget.
The last step is to ensure that the destination URL works. Test the button to make sure that visitors will go to the support page when clicking the graphic image. You should be taken directly to the support page …
(Test the text widget)
Text Widgets – Useful Tips:
If you want a new browser window to open up when visitors click on your support button (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the code from this:
To this (i.e. include the part that says: target=”_blank” in your text widget code):
When adding images to your sidebar navigation 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. Note that some themes can display elements differently depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars are wide and some are narrow. If your theme’s sidebar width is narrower than the width of the button image, then you may need to either adjust the size of your images, or the column width to make the images display correctly on your sidebar section.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
More Tips:
- If you don’t want the button to be centered inside your sidebar, delete the <center> and </center> tags from the beginning and end of the code. The image will then be left-aligned.
- You can link your support button to any destination you want (e.g. to an external link, contact form, support forum, etc.) and change this anytime by replacing the links inside your widget.
***
This is the end of part two of this series of tutorials.
To keep reading, click this link:
***
"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