In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we cover the basics of how to use WordPress widgets.
In this section you will learn how to configure a number of frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Configuring Commonly-Used WordPress Widgets
In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with several built-in widgets that can be used out of the box with little to no configuration needed, such as widgets that let you display links to your pages, filter posts by categories, RSS feed content, add tag clouds, etc.
(In a default WordPress installation, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets)
Configuring Frequently-Used WordPress Sidebar Widgets: Tutorial
In this tutorial series, you will learn how to add, configure and reorder s number of widgets, including:
- Add a Contact Us image linking to the support page.
- Add a Categories section with a drop down menu.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of Pages.
- Display Links on the sidebar.
- Adding an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a Tag Cloud section.
- Add and configure an Archives section to the sidebar.
The Widgets panel is located inside the WP dashboard by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This brings you to the Widgets panel in your browser window …
(Widgets Area)
Let’s start to configure some sidebar widgets …
Adding Text Widgets To The Blog Sidebar
Text widgets are incredibly 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 can be used to add article snippets, image links, reviews and more to your site … just type in text or add HTML into the content area. You can also give the widget a title. Remember to save your settings when done …
(Text widgets are extremely versatile!)
Example: Add A Clickable Help Button To The Sidebar Navigation Area Using A Text Widget
For this example, we’ll set up a clickable help button on your sidebar navigation 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 “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.
To display the clickable image on your site, the image must be uploaded to your server. Upload your image to the images folder in your server and write down the path to your image location.
For example …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
You will need this information in Step 3.
In order for someone to go to the contact page when the support 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 the button image to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create a contact page.
Create a contact page on your site and note down its URL …
Step 3 – Compose your text widget code.
Don’t worry … this sounds a lot more technical than it is. Basically, we just need to create the instructions linking your button image to the destination URL.
Your code can be composed in 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 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 your text file content to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help with basic HTML code, refer to this tutorial:
Now, go back into your Widgets panel …
(Widgets Area)
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 the Text widget …
(WordPress 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 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 save …
Add a heading to the widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Get Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the text area, then click the save button …
Note: Make sure to check all links before pasting scripts into the Text Widget, or your button won’t 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: not required if you’re pasting in HTML code like we’re using in the example for this tutorial).
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs option not checked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box unchecked)
Here is some text with Automatically add paragraphs box ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs box checked)
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Step 6 – Refresh the web browser.
After adding your text widget and HTML content, visit your site and refresh the web browser. If all links have been entered correctly, then the support button will display in the sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on sidebar)
The screenshot above shows a clickable button in the sidebar of a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test the button.
The last step is to ensure that your destination URL works. Test your button to make sure that visitors will go to your help page when clicking the button. You should be taken directly to your contact page …
(Test your text widget to make sure you’ve set up everything correctly)
Useful Tips:
If you would like a new browser window to open up when visitors go to the support page (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the button code from this:
To this (i.e. add the part containing target=”_blank” in your text widget code):
When choosing images for your sidebar navigation menu, make sure that the width of your image doesn’t exceed the width of your sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. Note that some themes may display elements differently depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars may be wider or narrower. If your theme’s sidebar width is narrower than the width of your graphic images, then you may need to either adjust the graphic size, or the column width to make graphics display correctly on your sidebar area.
(Adjust column width or reduce image size)
More Tips:
- If you don’t want the button image 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.
- Link the support button to any URL you like (e.g. to an external site, helpdesk, FAQ page, etc.) and change this anytime by editing the code in your widget.
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This is the end of section 2 of this tutorial.
To view Part Three, click this link:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum