Sidebar Positions

Each theme from Rough Pixels will have sidebar positions built into them so that you can add widgets. Some themes will have more positions than others and may have different naming. However, managing your sidebars and widgets will depend on whether you use the Classic Editor, the Customizer, or the Block Sidebar (Widgets) screen. They all share the similar function of adding widgets, so we made this guide a common tutorial.

We will use our Storytime Pro theme as an example. Storytime Pro gives you 10 sidebar positions. They help add more layout and content capabilities for your web pages, but will also depend on what widgets you add to them and what sidebars are available.

1. Go to the Appearance > Widgets 
2. Choose a Widget and either drag it to the sidebar where you wish it to appear.
3. Customizing the Widget features, click the down arrow in the upper right corner to expand the Widget.
4. To save the changes you make to a widget, click Save.
5. To remove a Widget, click Remove or drag the widget back into the Available Widgets list.

Different Sidebar Screens

Most people are more familiar with the older Classic sidebar view where you can drag widgets into the appropriate sidebar of choice.

For those of you that manage your sidebars and widgets via the Customizer:

With the recent version of WordPress, the Classic sidebars screen has been replaced with a block-based concept. You can now add any block to your site’s widget sidebar areas:

However, one big difference with the Block Sidebar screen is that when adding a widget to a sidebar, you get a preview of it.

Dynamic Width Sidebars

Most themes from others have fixed-sized sidebars; meaning they don’t adjust in size based on what is published in each position. We offer Dynamic Width Sidebars which do adjust based on how many widgets you publish.

If we use our Bottom sidebar group (from Storytime Pro) as an example, this is how it works:

• When you publish a widget in Bottom 1, your widget will become 100% in width.
• If you decide to publish a widget in Bottom 1+2, each widget will now be 50% in width.
• Adding three widgets in Bottom 1+2+3, each widget will become 33% in width.
• Or, adding four widgets in Bottom 1+2+3+4, each widget will be 25% in width.

You don’t even need to publish them in sequential order of positions; you can do 1+3+4, without one being in the Bottom 2 position. They will still function the same way.