How To Add The Sidebar To Wordpress Static Pages

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 | WordPress Blog, Wordpress Sidebar with

Within the WordPress Reading subpanel under the main Options panel is where you start seeing the versatility of a WordPress blog. You can specify a static page or the normal blog of the latest posts. Posts and pages are different; when you write a post it goes into the blog “loop”. Writing a page is static and doesn’t appear in the loop but is shown as a link somewhere on the WordPress sidebar.

If you choose the static page option be warned that some themes will not show the WordPress sidebar on pages. If this is the case you can add the sidebar to WordPress static pages very easily.

Click on Presentation from the main panel and then Theme Editor. On the right side you will see a list of the current theme’s templates. If you see a “Page Template” click that and the code will appear in the editor box. Copy all the code in the editor and paste it into Notepad for backup. Now at the very bottom of the editor box you should see this bit of code:

</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

That is telling the page template to get the themes footer, what we are going to do is tell the page template to also get the sidebar. Replace the above code with the following code and click “Update File”

</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

If you don’t see a “Page Template” then try the same steps above with the “Main Index Template” but be sure to copy the unedited code first into WordPad so you can put things back if they don’t work. Keep in mind that all WordPress themes are a little different and made by many different people so the files in them will vary.

If you managed to corrupt your theme’s templates files and it’s not displaying properly or worse you can’t even see your blog; go back and paste in the unedited text you saved in Notepad and click “Update File” to put things back. What? You didn’t save a backup? Well then you will need to delete the corrupt file in your hosting account and upload an unedited version of it. Not sure what file you messed up? Man, you are a butcher! Then upload a complete unedited version of the entire template to your hosting account.

Knowing how to add the WordPress sidebar to a static page is a great way to use a specific landing page that doesn’t change yet still looks like the rest of your WordPress blog.

The final step in this WordPress guide can be found on my other blog here: Add Background Color To Single Page Sidebar On Default WordPress Theme

About the Author:
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Jeff Houdyschell provides proven income opportunities, ideas and information for the best work at home jobs, visit: http://www.eSmartJob.com

Discover The Magic Formula To Create “Set-it-and-Forget-it” Websites Using Wordpress & Make Your First Adsense Dollar in The Next 7 Days.

Comments

4
RandyBrown // August 16th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Nice Site. I am new here but will be visiting more often as you have done a good job.

Thanks
5
earth for energy // August 21st, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Thanks for the tutorial. Like it.