Mar.22.2007
Widget: How to…
- Filed under: Tutorials
You learned how to widgetize the sidebar during the tutorial series, but I never showed you how to turn on the widget plugin. Here it is:
Installation
- Download the Widget plugin from Automattic.com.
- Upload it to your wp-content/plugins/ folder.
- Go to the Plugins page of the administration panel.
- Activate the Sidebar Widgets plugin.
Customization
- Go to the Presentation page of the administration panel. If your theme is widget-ready, you will see the Sidebar Widgets link next to the Theme Editor link.
- Go to Sidebar Widgets.
- From there, drag the little boxes into the big box.
- Rearrange the little boxes to the order that you would like each to appear.
- Click Save Changes.
- If you leave the big box empty then your theme will use its default sidebar instead of the widgetized version.
I use widgets, but I have to be honest, they are not my favorite thing in the world.
Thank you for this tutorial. I’m a little confused – my sidebar markup is like this:
I’m thinking I need to edit the function.php a bit, but I’m not sure how. Any help would be fantastic. This is a WONDERFUL tutorial, thanks so much.
Hmmm, can you see my code in your admin? Sorry!
It goes
[h2][?php _e('Pages'); ?][/h2]
[ul]
[?php wp_list_pages('depth=1&title_li='); ?]
[/ul]
Except of course the brackets are regular ≶ and >’s
Jessica,
Although you can configure widget to follow your format, I think you should correct your sidebar to follow the default structure.
I fixed it using my structure, thanks anyway. I don’t like those extra uls and lis.
This article could go great with a few links to some useful widgets. Maybe you could later make an article about useful plugins and widgets? Thanks!
I have uploaded your ‘Peaceful Rush’ WordPress layout. Looks good, but am a lill confused about how does it work.
By default it has an ‘ABOUT’ page at the top. When I go into ‘Create a new page’ it shows, there are no such ‘ABOUT’ pages.
Moreover, when I create a new one, it goes under the ‘Sidebar’ – ‘Pages’ section. How can I fix this. And or edit the ‘ABOUT’ page at the top and add pages adjacent to it.
Kindly help.
Thanks for your layout though.
Great Guide.. helped me out allot!.. keep up the good work!
The about link at the top is a hard coded link. You can open the header.php file and remove that link.
Used to dislike using Widgets, now I realise that you can’t live without them.
- MENJ
Anyone know of any great widgets???
I would like to know how to widgetize a footer for three columns and still keep my template intact. Do yo have a tutorial on that any where?
You can only widgetize a sidebar then place the sidebar in the footer.
I followed your tutorial series but using widgets messed up the custom sidebar so I just went back to what you taught me before.
I tired to activate the plugin, but it gave the error: Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.
I am a newbie to this sort of stuff, please help.
Roseanna – What version of WordPress are you using?
I think it’s 2.2
Then you don’t need to install the widget plugin. It comes with WordPress now
.
I have WP 2.3.1, and with the download it says fatal error (Fatal error: Cannot redeclare register_sidebars() (previously declared in C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress\wp-includes\widgets.php:15) in C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress\wp-content\plugins\widgets\widgets.php on line 42) and when I do without the download, it says it cannot find the plugin. Any clues?
Widget plugin is an awesome tools. That’s a very nice design, and easy to use.
I used your tutorial to create my theme, but I’m using WP 2.5.2, so I don’t need the Widge Plugin right? Anyway, when I go to Design | Widgets and drag a widget in, my whole sidebar goes away. What did I do wrong?
Oh. OK I GET IT NOW! You get EITHER the widgets OR your custom sidebar. Hmmm. Is there a way to customize the widgets then?