What is a sidebar used for? I’m Confused

  • Resolved markcarrara

    (@markcarrara)


    10 months, 2 weeks ago

    I am returning to WordPress after a few years trying to make Drupal or Joomla work. I am unclear on the concept of a sidebar. Here is what I thought a sidebar was for.

    I have a post. It is a description of some travel location. In the sidebar I want to provide a map, link to a photo galley and link to some other resources.

    When I create a post using the Single with Sidebar template, how do I edit the information in the sidebar? When I view the post there is a sidebar with the headings I created in the template editor, but I can’t figure out how to add content.

    I tried creating a new template without a sidebar but with two columns, one for content and one with the stuff I would put in a sidebar when I create a new post with that template, no second column.

    I think it is my not understanding sidebars.

    I am using 6.4.2, the twenty-twenty-four Theme. My browser is Chrome.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi markcarrara,

    On WordPress, a sidebar typically refers to an area where you can add various content, such as widgets, links, and other elements, to appear alongside your main content.

    Check out this short tutorial to guide you in creating a template
    https://learn.www.ads-software.com/tutorial/building-sidebars-with-the-site-editor/

    This should help clarify the concept of the sidebar for you.

    I think it is my not understanding sidebars.

    The missing part of your understanding is that sidebars are typically(*) defined outside the post’s content area.

    That means you can’t typically(*) put in stuff for an individual post from the post editor. — you’d typically put in stuff that you want to appear site-wide (eg sitewide navigation, banner ads, 3rd-party widgets, etc).

    How you manage the content in the sidebar depends on what kind of theme you’re using.

    The link @anieeedet gave walks you through creating a new sidebar when using a block theme. If your block theme’s templates come with a sidebar already, this will typically be a template part, and you can just open this in Site Editor to add any content you want.

    But if you’re using a classic theme, then you’d manage the sidebar(s) content from the APPEARANCE => WIDGETS screen.

    In the sidebar I want to provide a map, link to a photo galley and link to some other resources.

    Despite what we’ve both stated above, it’s still possible to do as you desire (ie have pieces of the single post’s content appear in the sidebar). But you’ll have to structure things a little differently and perhaps do some lite coding. This is why I highlighted typically(*) above.

    Since there’s a common sidebar (sitewide or per template), we’ll need to figure out a way to dynamically call the widgets (map, link, gallery, etc) that belong to the specific post into this common sidebar.

    Of course, we can’t do this if we just dump the widgets as static content in the post.

    Instead, we could define each of these items (map, links, gallery, etc) as custom fields in the individual posts. This is a built-in WordPress function with rudimentary support in the post editor. But there are many plugins that leverage and extend this: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search/custom+fields/.

    Assign custom fields

    Thread Starter markcarrara

    (@markcarrara)

    Thank you both for the reply. George you reply explained exactly my issue. Some lite coding is a lot better than, it can’t be done. I need to do some investigating to figure things out. Both of you pointed me in the right direction.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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