In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we cover the basics of using WordPress widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to configure various WordPress sidebar widgets.
Configuring Commonly-Used WordPress Widgets
By default, your site comes with a number of built-in active widgets, such as widgets that let you display external links, filter posts by categories, RSS feed content, add search features, etc.
(By default, your site comes with a number of built-in widgets)
Configuring Commonly-Used WordPress Widgets On Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section: Step-By-Step Tutorial
In this tutorial, you are going to add, configure and reorder s number of widgets, including:
- Adding a clickable Support Contact graphic linking to your help page.
- Add a Categories section.
- Adding a Recent Posts section.
- Adding a list of your site’s most important Pages.
- Display Links on your sidebar.
- Display the latest news using an RSS Feed section.
- Adding a Tag Cloud.
- Add and configure an Archives section to your sidebar area.
The Widgets area can be accessed inside the WordPress administration by going to Appearance > Widgets …
(WordPress Widgets Menu)
This loads the Widgets panel in your browser …
(Widgets Area)
Let’s get started …
Add A Text Widget
Text widgets are 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 your sidebar navigation area or other widget sections, such as policies, images, special promotions and more to your site … just 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 …
(Text widgets are very useful!)
Example: Add A Clickable Support Button To The Sidebar Navigation Section Using A Text Widget
For this example, let’s set up a clickable help button on the 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, you will need to create or source a graphic image that you will want your visitors to click on …
We’ll set up the clickable Help button to display at the top of the sidebar like in the example shown below …
Step 1 – Upload your image.
To display the clickable button image on your site, first you must upload the graphic image to your server and write down the address of your image location.
E.g. …
http://www.yourdomain.com/images/supportbutton.jpg
This information will be required in Step 3.
For visitors to be taken to the contact page when they click on the support 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 graphic to this URL in Step 3 …
Step 2 – Create a destination page.
Create a contact page on your site and note the page 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 your contact page.
Your instructions can be composed in 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 the sections of the above sample code that you will need to replace with the actual contact page and image URLs …
Replace the above URLs and then copy the above code to your clipboard when finished.
If you need help figuring out basic HTML code, see this tutorial:
Go back to your Widgets screen …
(Widgets Screen)
Step 4 – Add a Text widget.
Add a Text widget to your sidebar where you would like your clickable button to display.
In the Available Widgets area, select the Text widget …
(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 Text widget)
Step 5 – Configure your widget.
Click on the Text widget title bar to configure the widget options. Paste the code with the links to your contact page and graphic button into your text widget content area and click save …
Add a heading to your widget if you want (e.g. “Need Help?”, “Support”, etc.) and paste the code with the correct URLs into the Content box, then click Save when done …
Note: Make sure to check your contact page and image links before pasting scripts into your Text Widget, or your clickable button won’t work.
*** If using WordPress version pre-4.8 ***
If 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 an HTML paragraph code (note: not required if you paste in HTML code like we’re using in the example for 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 box ticked …
(Automatically add paragraphs option selected)
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Step 6 – Refresh the browser.
After adding your widget and formatted content, visit the front end of your site and refresh the browser. If you have entered all of the links correctly, then your support button will display at the top of the sidebar menu …
(Clickable support button widget on sidebar)
The above screenshot shows a clickable button added to a brand new WordPress site.
Step 7 – Test your button.
The last step is to ensure that your clickable button works. Test this by clicking the button. You should be taken directly to your support page …
(Test your text widget)
Tips:
If you would like a new window to open up when visitors go to the contact page (so they don’t leave the page they’re in), then change the code from this:
To this (i.e. add the part that says: target=”_blank” in the html code):
When choosing images for your sidebar navigation menu, make sure that the width of the image doesn’t exceed the width of the sidebar column, especially if you are using a non-responsive WordPress theme. Note that some themes can display different column widths depending on their templates and layout. Some sidebars are wide and some are narrow. If your theme’s sidebar is narrower than the width of the graphic image, then you may need to either adjust the graphic size, or the width of your sidebar column to make elements display correctly on your sidebar section.
(Make sure the image width does not exceed the sidebar column width)
Extra 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 line of code. The image will then align to the left.
- Link your help button to any destination you want (e.g. to an external link, contact form, support forum, etc.) and change this anytime by replacing the content in the widget.
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This is the end of part 2 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)