I’m not a programmer, I figure out how to accomplish my Technical goals by reverse engineering, basically limping my way through PHP programing. I recently figured out a much simpler way to make a custom layout on any page by using a plugin that allows you to easily place widget spots on a page or post! The one I am using is called “Add Widgets to Page”

If you have ever tried to accomplish this before using custom page templates, you are going to love this solution! Not only is it easier, faster and works great, but you can now upgrade or change your word press theme anytime you want, without having to worry about it breaking, or having to transfer and modify your old custom page templates to the new theme. You custom page will stay intact, and looking great with any theme! This also means, you don’t need to spend money on custom WordPress themes templates to get the same look :)

Here is an example of what you can do with any theme:

There are many more uses for this technique, but the first one that comes to mind is a custom layout on the home page. For example: To make a custom home/landing page that has a recent post section on top, and then 3 columns below that can be used to display posts from 3 different categories:

  1. Install the ”Add Widgets to Page” plugin (free).
  2. Use the short code [addw2p name="name"] (replace “name” with whatever you want to call it)
  3. Below that, make a table with 3 columns, and place the  short code [addw2p name="name"] inside each column.
  4. Now simply go to your widget page, and you will see 4 new widget areas.
  5. Drop your favorite widgets into each of the 4 new spaces, and go check out your new page!
HINT: You can also place a widget area in a custom page template easily using short code by using the technique I discuse in my post “How to use short code in a page template or in HTML/PHP”

If you need help to setup a table on a WordPress page here is a little sample that will provide you with the above results:

You can just copy and paste this into a new page (make sure you are in HTML mode) then go to your widget section and ad the widgets you want to each section. Seriously, how awesome is this! (if you have ever tried to accomplish this with custom PHP, and page templates, I’m sure you see what I’m talking about!)

<center>[addw2p name="FrontPageTop"]</center>
<table align="center">
<tr>
<td>[addw2p name="FrontPageColumn1"]</td>
<td>[addw2p name="FrontPageColumn2"]</td>
<td>[addw2p name="FrontPageColumn3"]</td>
</tr>
</table>

You can now put any widget onto the page in the locations you choose, how cool is that!

In this example of custom front page layout, you can now use either a free or built in widget that will display the recent posts in the top widget, and place 3 widgets in the places below that to display the most popular posts from 3 different categories below the main widget box.

HINT:

If you don’t mind dropping a couple bucks, there are lots of premium widgets that will place any type of post listing (recent, popular, category, etc) and show them with a professional look.

My favorite is one from Code Canyon called “Super Post“ Its just one plugin that can do the work of many, and keep your blog consistent.

 

Tagged with: • •

Filed under: How To • Technical Solution Articles

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!