Once you have your site customized and selected a theme, you can further arrange the layout of common content elements in different areas of the page. Your theme provides a number of re-usable blocks of structured content called Widgets. These widgets can be placed into widgets areas which are sections of the page exposed by the theme.

For example, you can place a featured content slideshow widget in the front page header area. You could also place a news widget and an events widget in the front page content area and re-order them if needed.

The Widget Screen

Widgets are managed using the widget screen at Appearance > Widgets. The work area is divided into two sections, Available Widgets on the left and Widget Areas on the right.

• To place a widget in a widget area, click and drag the widget box from the left side of the screen to the appropriate widget area on the right.
• To view widgets already placed in a widget area, click the down arrow in the widget area box.
• You can re-order the widgets in a widget area by clicking and dragging the widget boxes within the widget area. Widgets higher in the stack will be displayed on top or to the left in the theme.
• Some widgets have settings that are used to control how and what the widget displays. To view the settings for a widget, expand the widget area containing the widget and the click the down arrow in the widget box to reveal the settings.
• To remove a widget, you can either drag the widget to the left of the screen or expand the settings area and click the Delete link.
• By default, a widget will appear on every page that contains its widget area. Some widget areas are not present on every page. For example, the Front Page area is only displayed on the site’s landing (home) page.
  • You can restrict the pages on which a widget appears by using the “Display/Hide widget” options in the widget settings area. Select “Hide widget on selected” to remove the widget from certain pages and “Display widget on selected” to only show the widget on certain pages. Then, use the field below the show/hide menu to select the pages for the widget.

Widgets

Available widgets vary by theme, but here is an overview of the most commonly used widgets.

Feature slider

Adds a slideshow of featured images to the site. Used to display a set of featured content and link visitors to that content. Images have a wide aspect ratio and should be visually striking to attract attention. The widget has no options, rather it uses the images configured in the Featured section of the Appearance > Customize menu.

Images for this widget should be 940 x 277 pixels for the Stacked theme and 746 x 340 pixels for the Columns theme.

Note: This widget should only be added to the Front Page Header area!

Feature thumbnails

Adds a slideshow of featured images to the site. Used to display a set of featured content and link visitors to that content. Four images are displayed on screen at once in a square aspect ratio to allow the visitor to see a wider range of featured content. The widget has no options, rather it uses the images configured in the Featured section of the Appearance > Customize menu.

Images for this widget should be 222 x 222 pixels.

Note: This widget should only be added to the Front Page Header area!

News Feed

Displays up to four recent news items from this site and from Ohio State. Use the News Category setting to select the WordPress post category for your news posts. The Items from Feed setting controls how many of the news items come from the Ohio State news feed. Recommended placement is on the front page and/or the footer.

Events Feed

Displays up to four upcoming events from your site’s event calendar. Recommended placement is on the front page and/or the footer.

Link Buttons

Shows the quick link buttons menu. Menu items will be displayed as large, prominent buttons to be used for common links your visitors may need. You can optionally choose to display the widget on all screen sizes, only on small screens (such as a smart phone) or only on large screens (such as a desktop monitor).

Social Media

Display embedded content from various social networks right on your site. The widget can show up to three networks and currently supports Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

There is space for two or three social networks depending on your theme. Give each network a title (ex: Twitter), the URL for your page on that site (ex: https://twitter.com/OhioStateAlumni), select the appropriate network from the drop down menu, and enter an Embed ID.

The Embed ID varies per network. For Twitter, you will need to log in and create a Twitter widget using your account settings page, then use the widget ID number. For Facebook, simply use the account name as the embed ID. For the Alumni Association, the account name would be ‘OSUAA’.

Mission Statement

Displays a mission statement or similar document. The text is given a unique treatment that stands out on the page. Recommended placement is on the front page. You can customize both the section title and statement text using the widget settings. Line breaks in the text area will be converted to paragraphs.

Countdown

Adds a countdown timer. Typically used to show the time remaining until a game with a certain school from up north. You can customize both the date when the timer reaches “0:00:00” and the text displayed to the left of the numbers.

Author Information

Shows information about the user who authored a post. Can be optionally placed in the content footer if you have multiple content contributors.

Visual Editor

Adds a rich text area to the page. Can be used to create and place any content you might typically include in a page or post (formatted text, images, tables, etc.) in a widget area.