WordPress 2.5 Sidebar Widgets Guide

WordPress 2.5 ushered in major changes in the WordPress dashboard both visually and functionally. Navigating the dashboard is a little different, but if you have spent any amount of time with previous versions then it shouldn’t take long to figure it out. WordPress sidebar widgets have had a major change with version 2.5 and, in my opinion, some of them are good and some I haven’t decided on yet.

Getting to sidebar widgets in WordPress 2.5 is just a little different than previous versions in that the Presentation menu is now called Design. Once in the Widgets submenu you will see it has a completely different look and feel.

At the top of the widgets screen you will see new drop down options, one on the left for what widgets to show in this view. Note this option doesn’t affect what shows on the sidebar, just your view while working in this menu. Another drop down on the right to choose what sidebar you are working with if your theme has more than one sidebar. There is also a sidebar search feature on the top right.

Adding widgets is pretty straight forward from here: If the Add link is shown on an available widget from the left side then clicking it will move it over to the right into the sidebar. Once on the sidebar you can now use drag and drop to position the widget into the desired location on the WordPress sidebar.

Clicking Edit on the widget will give you the option to remove it or, if available, to make any changes you want to it. Removing a widget is a little awkward in that you must click the edit link on it to get an opportunity to remove it. Something I admit took me a while to figure out. Once you have all your widgets as you wish just click Save Changes.

Text widgets are still one of the most versatile, and best options of using WordPress, and in WordPress version 2.5 there are now more than the ten available text widgets as in previous versions. Text widgets can accept plain text, scripts or HTML, just be sure if adding images or scripts to a text widget that they are not larger than the sidebar container. You should check the look of your WordPress blog in at least two different browsers to make sure it looks right. Bad code or missing code tags can wreak havoc on your blog as well as images too big for the sidebar. Pasting text from an MS Word document into your sidebar, or a post, can create problems as well.

Update for those having problems with text widgets in 2.5 and 2.5.1 !

There are known issues with text widgets in both versions and I don’t have all the answers. There are multiple posts on the WordPress forum regarding this. The easiest fix may be to use Firefox for a browser rather than Internet Explorer. Another reason to not upgrade your blog if it is operating the way you want as it is! If you have widget issues check out all the posts for a possible solution here: WordPress.org Forum

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