Tag: Using Widgets

In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained the basics of how to use widgets in WordPress.

In this section you are going to learn how to begin configuring various widgets in WordPress.

Configuring Frequently-Used WordPress Widgets

By default, your site comes with several built-in widgets, such as widgets that let you display external links, filter posts by categories, news items, add search features, etc.

(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of active widgets)

Configuring Sidebar Widgets In WordPress In WordPress: Tutorial

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to add, configure and reorder various widgets to display in the site’s sidebar navigation menu, including:

• Add a clickable Help image linking to the contact details page.
• Add a Categories section with a drop down menu.
• Adding a Recent Posts section to display the latest posts.
• Add a list of your site’s Pages.
• Display useful Links on your sidebar area.
• Display news items using an RSS Feed section.
• Adding a list of clickable tags through a Tag Cloud section.
• Configure how Archived Posts display on your sidebar navigation menu.

To access the Widgets panel log into the WordPress admin and go to Appearance > Widgets …

(Widgets Menu)

This brings up the Widgets panel in your web browser …

(Widgets Section)

Let’s get started …

Adding Text Widgets

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)

Text widgets let you insert just about anything you want into your sidebar section or other widget sections, such as lists of favorite items, social media buttons, messages and more to your site … simply by typing in text or inserting HTML into the content area. You can also add an optional title in the Title field. Remember to save your settings …

(Text widgets are really useful!)

Example: Use A Text Widget To Add A Help Button To Your Sidebar Area

For this example, we’ll set up a support button on the sidebar area that will take 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 graphic image that your visitors can click on …

We’ll set up the clickable Help button to display at the top of the sidebar navigation section like in the example shown below …

Step 1 – Upload your image.

To display the clickable button 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 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 they click on the help button, either create a contact page, or have an existing destination page already set up (e.g. a helpdesk). We will then link your button image to this URL in Step 3 …

Step 2 – Add a destination page.

Create a contact page and note the page URL …

Step 3 – Create the HTML code for your text widget.

Don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. Basically, you just need to create the instructions linking the graphic image to the contact page.

Your instructions can be typed in a simple text editor and will 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 screenshot below shows the sections of the above code that you will need to replace with your actual web addresses …

Replace the above URLs and then copy all of the above code to your clipboard when finished.

If you need help understanding basic HTML code, see this tutorial:

• A Beginner’s Guide To Formatting Content With HTML For WordPress Users

Now, go back to your Widgets area …

(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 a Text widget …

(Text widget)

Drag the 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.

Click on the 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 section to the 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: Make sure to test all 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, 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 formatted HTML content 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 selected)

Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box checked …

(Automatically add paragraphs box checked)

***

Step 6 – Refresh the web browser.

After adding your widget and code, visit the front-end of your site and refresh the browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then your clickable support button should display at the top of your sidebar menu …

(Clickable support button widget on blog sidebar)

The screenshot above shows the support contact button in the sidebar of a brand new WordPress site.

Step 7 – Test the widget.

The last step is to ensure that your links work. Test your button to make sure that your visitors will go to your help page when they click on the graphic image. You should be taken directly to the support page …

(Test your clickable button)

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 on), then change the button code from this:

To this (i.e. add the part containing target=”_blank” in your html code):

When inserting images into your sidebar 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 too wide or too narrow. If your theme’s sidebar is narrower than the width of your button images, then you may need to either adjust the graphic size, or the width of your sidebar column to make images display correctly on your theme.

(Adjust column width or reduce image size)

Extra Tips:

• If you don’t want your button to be centered inside the 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 your help button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external link, helpdesk, forum, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the content in the widget.

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This is the end of section 2 of this series of tutorials.

Click here to access the rest of this tutorial series:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To Your Blog – Part Three

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