One of the things I get asked a lot is how to add Call To Action text elements with a link to a page in sidebars, the homepage, a header or a footer. You know … something like this.
WIDGETS ON SALE NOW
50% OFF
Click Here For Details!
OK, so maybe that’s not exactly something anyone has ever asked me for … but you get the idea!
It’s actually pretty easy to do.Â
Here’s how.
Lets work with the example above. Create a new page and call it “Scratch Pad”.
(If I built your site for you, there are likely a few pages titled “Scratch Pad – Do Not Publish” at your site.)
In that page, add the text:
WIDGETS ON SALE NOW
50% OFF
Click Here For Details!
Be sure you are in the ‘visual’ editor.
Using your formatting options, style the text how you want it to appear. In the example above, I went to an 18 PT font, centered the text, bolded the text, changed the text color to red and then linked ‘Click Here For Details’ to my home page. You would of course link it to the actual page you want to send folks to.
Now … click the Text tab. The Text tab used to be called HTML. Why WordPress changed it to Text … God only knows. Nevertheless, it IS HTML. Highlight the HTML and copy it.
Now all you need to do is drag a text widget into a widget container (Primary Sidebar, Header Right, Home Featured, Footer 1 .. etc) and paste that HTML into the text widget then save the text widget.
An example in a Primary Sidebar would look like this:
Click save! Look at your sidebar and see if you are happy. If not, go back to your scratch pad in Visual mode, edit, click on the Text tab and grab the new HTML and paste it into the widget. Repeat until you are satisfied with the result.
Power Tip 1 – do this for page excerpts
In ‘How To Add Excerpts To Pages – WordPress Plugin‘ I mentioned that I would explain how to add the Keep reading here link. It’s done exactly the same way, except that the HTML is pasted into the excerpt field.
Power Tip 2 – use multiple tabs in your browser
When I am doing this type of thing, I have 3 tabs open in my browser.
- Tab 1 is the scratch pad
- Tab 2 is the widget (Dashboard / Appearance / Widgets)
- Tab 3 is the home page
By having the 3 tabs open, I can edit my text in the scratch pad page, copy it, change tabs to my widget page, copy the HTML into the widget and save it, then switch to my home page tab and refresh that page to see if I am happy with the results. This is WAY easier than working in a single tab and having to save the scratch pad, then go to widgets, then go to my home page, then go back to open the scratch pad … etc. Working in multiple tabs is a real time saver.
Photo Credits
Thumbnail Image from the Microsoft Clip Art Collection
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