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How to add a widget to the sidebar

There are basically two ways to add widgets to the sidebar. The easy one for people who use a widget-ready theme, and then there’s the way for people who are either using a non-widget-ready theme or are weird German guys with too much time on their hands, who prefer to mess with the code. Uhm, yeah, that would be me.

The easy way

Go to your admin panel and click on presentation. Under “widgets” you see your sidebar(s). Don’t worry, that’s just the widgets. The non-witgetized parts of the sidebar are not shown. You didn’t lose them.

Widget - opens in new windowDrag a “Text 1″ widget into your sidebar.

Click the configure button on the right.

Paste the code you copied from the widget provider (i. e. BlogCatalog) into the big text field.

Close it, click “Save Changes” and you should be set.

The harder way

Open your sidebar.php in a text editor. I prefer to have the widget above the meta section of the sidebar, so I look for it in the code. Ah, there it is.

<li><h2>Recent Entries</h2>
<ul>
<?php query_posts(’showposts=10′); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<li><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>”><?php the_title() ?></a></li>
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
</ul>
</li>

<li><h2>Meta</h2>
<ul>
…

It will look different in your theme. Just make sure you found the meta part. Before you edit anything, you should make sure that you have a backup copy of the file. Now I will paste the code from the widget provider into the theme, which results in this:

<li><h2>Recent Entries</h2>
<ul>
<?php query_posts(’showposts=10′); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<li><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>”><?php the_title() ?></a></li>
<?php endwhile; endif; ?>
</ul>
</li>

<ul>
<li><script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.blogcatalog.com/w/recent.php?id=XXXXXX”/script></li>
</ul>

<li><h2>Meta</h2>
<ul>
…

As you can see, I also gave it ul and li tags, to match the rest of the sidebar. Save the file, upload it to your ftp, thus replacing your old sidebar.php. You should be able to see your shiny new widget now.

I hope this was of help to you. If it was (even if not), drop me line. I’m always interested in feedback.


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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 3:55 am and is filed under WordPress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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160 Responses to “How to add a widget to the sidebar”

  1. I tried the hard way once and broke my blog…thank god for drag and drop!

  2. Thanks, this was really helpful

  3. For those who break their blogs like Andy, try any changes you want to make on a test blog first. Keep your test blog as similar to your original one in production.

  4. sometimes, widgeting end up my blog into mess. So, i better don’t this to better control of my sidebars.

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  6. Thanks for the info. Having some problems with my side bar.

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  8. Hi

    I want to ADD a widget (plug-in) “Event Calendar” to my friend’s blog at: http://www.womenonair.biz/blog to the right sidebar

    when I drag and drop the Event Calendar widget, it REPLACES the entire existing sidebar

    I just want to ADD the new widget; actually I want to replace an existing graphic on that right sidebar with the widget

    can you tell me how to do that without my entire sidebar disappearing??

    thanks for this very informative site!!

  9. Thanks, this was really helpful

  10. Thanks for the info. This might sort my problem. If not I will be back..

  11. sometimes, widgeting end up my blog into mess. So, i better don’t this to better control of my sidebars.

  12. It worked, at last. Thanks so much :-)

  13. Thanks for this, i know this before, click on the small plus/add button located at the top of the sidebar. In the pop-up window, you will see a range of commonly used widgets. To add a widget, double-click the widget.

  14. In wp its very simple but you need the widgets type layout.

  15. thanks for providing information…. nice one..

  16. Thanks for the valuable and informative post it is helpful for all of us.

  17. I couldnt figure that out, thanks for the info. Now I can add a widget, huray

  18. hey thanks for the post. It was really helpful…thanks again for sharing it.

  19. That is why I like this blog, you always post the solution with examples that we just follow step by step. That’s amazing!

  20. If ever I plan to run a blog, does it really have to be Wordpress to run Widgets? Can I do it the same way like in Blogger?

  21. thanks a lot for shairing such informative post.

  22. Thanks for information about how to add widgets to side bar it will be very helpful to me thank a lot. Have a nice day.

  23. Very useful information. It’s wonderful when people who know share their knowledge with those of use who don’t!

  24. I tried the hard way once and broke my blog…thank god for drag and drop :) i needed that info.

  25. Thanks, this was really helpful

  26. sometimes, widgeting end up my blog into mess. So, i better don’t this to better control of my sidebars. This is what i do ;)

  27. completely agree with the above comment, the internet is with a doubt growing into the most important medium of communication across the globe and its due to sites like this that ideas are spreading so quickly.

  28. Thanks for the great article, do you have any additional resources you can point us to to learn more?

  29. This is truly innovative and insightful information- thanks a lot for the post.

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  34. Awesome article - concise and correct. Really article is is informative I would like to thank the author for shearing the information.

  35. Thanks for the post. What do you all think of the future of blogging? I have been reading a lot about google’s attempt to gain preferential treatment for its site from internet providers. This will result in their sites being faster than sites owned by individuals and/or smaller comapnies. It’s my beleif that if google is able to succeed there will be far less websites out there and therefore far less blogging.

  36. I have just started a WP blog on travel in Pattaya and to be honest have been having a difficult time with these widgets, I seem to have broken the blog a couple of times but eventually did it the easy way thanks to you.

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  38. I tried hard way and It mess up all the layout of my blog. I always try to understand all those coding things and for this i have to take the hard way :)

  39. I tried a lots of another widget but not worked , so is it possible that problem in skin or in layout

  40. How do i get my old sidebar back?I’ve recently installed Google Desktop, and chose to put the Google Sidebar on in place of the original sidebar, however, i don’t like the Google Sidebar and would like to get the original Vista Sidebar back but i don’t know how, can someone help me?

  41. Thx for such a useful information specially related to widget and blogs how to attach with sidebar.

  42. Same problem with my blogs i tried some of the widget but not worked, so can any one help where actual problem
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  43. easier then I thought it would be, even the hard way seems easy thank you for this.

  44. Easy! Great tips and great instruction! Nice to see someone still hacking at the code this way.

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  47. I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT U COULD DO THAT THANKS FOR SHARING THAT WITH ME THOUGH,

  48. For the longest time I was using an older theme with no widget support, now that I’ve switched to one that does allow widgets it’s so much easier :)

  49. Nice post, nice to see someone showing how to do this rather than drag and drop. lol

  50. New blogger like us not having extra knowledge about how to add different widget to sidebar thx for information, it will be helpful to enhance blog sidebar.

  51. Aww another great and informative article , thanks for your tips and information dear

  52. How to add a widget to the sidebar great article thank you.

  53. Verry nice article, thanks for share..

  54. I always do error when starting to add widget to my wp, this is very great guide …thanks

  55. Very helpful. I love wordpress because everyone uses it and as a result, there are tons of great tutorials around! Thanks!

  56. Sidebar Widgets allows you to move things (widgets)
    around, in and out of your sidebar. A widget is something that you might want
    on your sidebar, such as a category list or the most recent comments or a link
    to your admin pages.

  57. Thanks for the valuable and informative post, these code help me widget to the sidebar.

  58. Useful info, cheers

  59. It works the same on a computer with MAC? Can you still drag stuff?

  60. Have often heard from blogger, Attractive widget helpful to enhance blog thx for such Widgets…

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  62. Thanks for tip. You make it look much simpler to use.

  63. It will look different in your theme. Just make sure you found the meta part. Before you edit anything, you should make sure that you have a backup copy of the file.

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  68. This is pretty cpomplicated. I don’t know if I can keep up with all the new technonlogy coming out.

  69. Great always hungry for such useful widgets for my Network Cabling Florida blog. Looking forward for more Widgets.

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  71. Informative and helpful post.Thanks

  72. Well…For those who break their blogs like Andy, try any changes you want to make on a test blog first. Keep your test blog as similar to your original one in production.

  73. Well…For those who break their blogs like Andy, try any changes you want to make on a test blog first. Keep your test blog as similar to your original one in production.

  74. Nice post guys, keep them coming

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  77. Adding recent comments to the sidebar of your blog makes sense if you want to readily share the comments. Most blogs place the recent comments at the end of the blog, but with the use of a widget, you can change the location of the recent comments to the sidebar. The directions that follow are for Blogger blogs. Similar widgets are available for other blogs. Read on to learn more.

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  78. How to add a widget to the sidebar good article thank you.

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  80. How to add a widget to the sidebar great article thank you.

  81. Great Post. Does anyone know if there is a legal way I can display this content on my own website- thanks

  82. Make sure that you don’t have the gadget installed already that your sidebar isn’t full and if everything fails, exit the sidebar by clicking the sidebar icon in your icon tray (beside the system clock @ the task bar) and restart it by going to the start menu, searching for sidebar and pressing enter or clicking on well,windows sidebar.

  83. Nice Post. does anyone know if there is a legal way I can display this content on my own website- Many thanks

  84. I have some appts and school assignments I have inputted into my windows Microsoft works calendar. Is there any vista sidebar widget that can display the data/calendar? All I can find is the standard date/time one, not any that can pull data from windows calendar.thanks!

  85. Ultimate post, I really like it, can you please share some more info on it, which is quite more helpful for us.

  86. How to add a widget to the sidebar good article thank you.

  87. Informative and helpful post.Thanks

  88. I’ve wondered how to do this, thanks.

  89. hey thats a good one thank you

  90. As blogging is meant for the updates i used to do regularly,but these are too tensed with my work i am unable to do blogging frequently..Thanks for the post.

  91. perfect article. thank you

  92. one number. thanks

  93. thank you very much

  94. thanx for the post,very helpful

  95. Nice tips …

  96. As blogging is meant for the updates i used to do regularly,but these are too tensed with my work i am unable to do blogging frequently..Thanks for the post.

  97. Great Tips…. thanks to nice share.

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  106. What are the benefits of doing it the hard way vs. the easy way? More customizable?

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  108. It’s helpfull and I really like it.I’ll try , thanks anyway… I wish you share some more info on it.

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  110. Oh that was much easier to read than to understand someone telling me. I finally understand the widget! Amen!

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  116. I have some appts and school assignments I have inputted into my windows Microsoft works calendar. Is there any vista sidebar widget that can display the data/calendar? All I can find is the standard date/time one, not any that can pull data from windows calendar.thanks!

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