Adding a Sidebar

Updated on January 24, 2018

Sidebars/Widget Areas are containers to hold widgets. They are usually used to display information other than the main content of a web page or to add widgets into mega and side menus.

Note that there is no difference between a sidebar and a widget area. Sometimes, when talking about pages for example, we call it sidebar, but other times, like when talking about mega menus, we call it a widget area. The Jupiter theme provides 17 default sidebar areas. Each sidebar area belongs to a specific page.

In this article, we’ll explain the process of adding a sidebar to a page and selecting a widget area for the mega menu. It does not matter if the page is a blog post or portfolio item, the process is the same.


Adding a Sidebar into Posts

This setting is available in Posts, Pages, News and Portfolios in the Jupiter Page Options box. This setting adds the default sidebar area.

To add a sidebar:

1Add a new post or edit an existing one.

Adding a sidebar - new post

2Scroll down to the Jupiter Page Options box.

Adding a sidebar - jupiter page options

3From the Layout setting, select one of the sidebar options.

Adding a sidebar - layout

4Update or publish the page.

Adding a Sidebar into Pages

There are three ways to add a sidebar into a page from the layout setting, in the page section shortcode and in the widgetized sidebar shortcode.

Layout Settings

This setting is available in Posts, Pages, News and Portfolios in the Jupiter Page Options box. This setting adds the default sidebar area.

To add a sidebar:

1Add a new page or edit an existing page.

Adding a sidebar - new page

2Scroll down to the Jupiter Page Options box.

Adding a sidebar - jupiter page options

3From the Layout setting, select one of the sidebar options.

Adding a sidebar - layout

4Click on Update.

Adding a Sidebar via Shortcodes

Page Section Shortcode

The page section shortcode provides the Select Section Layout and Sidebar settings which allow you to add a sidebar inside a page section. It’s useful when the whole page is in full layout but you need to show a sidebar for just one of the page sections.

To add a sidebar inside a page section:

1Add a page section shortcode to your page.

Adding a sidebar - shortcode search

2Access the Page Section Settings.

3From Select Section Layout, select Left or Right sidebar.

Adding a sidebar - page section settings

4From Sidebar, select one of the sidebars.

Adding a sidebar - page section sidebar option

5Click on Save Changes.

Widgetized Sidebar Shortcode

This shortcode allows you to choose a sidebar and display it inside a page section or row shortcode. In this example, we’ll explain the process for the row shortcode.

To add the widgetized sidebar shortcode inside the row shortcode:

1Add the row shortcode, then select one of the column layouts.

Adding a sidebar - row layout

2Click on the + button in one of the columns, search for Widgetized Sidebar and click on it.

Adding a sidebar - shortcode search

3From the Sidebar settings in the Widgetized Sidebar Settings pop-up, select one of the sidebars.

Adding a sidebar - widgetized sidebar settings

4Click on Save changes.

Enabling a Sidebar for Archive Pages

In this section we’ll describe how to activate the sidebar for the portfolio archive pages. To do this, follow the steps below:

1Go to Theme Options > Portfolio > Portfolio Archive.

2Edit the option Archive Layout. There you can select the sidebar layout for the archive pages. The available options are: Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar and Full Layout. 

3Click on the Save Settings button.

Enabling a Sidebar for the Search Page

Enabling the sidebar for the search page takes similar steps as for archive pages. They are the following:

1Go to Theme Options > Search.

2In the Layout dropdown, select the sidebar layout you need. The available options are: Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar, and Full Layout.

3Click on the Save Settings button.

Choosing a Widget Area for the Mega Menu

You can set a widget area as a column in your menu by selecting it from the Mega Menu Widget Area option for second level menu items.

To add a widget area to the mega menu, follow the steps described below:

1Go to Appearance > Menus, and select the existing menu or create a new one.
2In the parent menu item settings, tick the Make this Item Mega Menu? option.

Adding a sidebar - parent menu settings

3Then open the settings of the second level menu item, find the option Mega Menu Widget Area, and select widget area from the dropdown list.

Adding a sidebar - child menu settings

4Click on Save Menu.
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