Simple Sidebars Tutorial

This Simple Sidebars tutorial shows you how to add new sidebars to your Genesis or StudioPress site. We’re using the Simple Sidebars plugin by StudioPress.

What you can, and can not do, using this Simple Sidebars Tutorial.

You can make new sidebars and assign them to…

• Individual pages.
• Individual posts.
• Category archive listing pages.
  (Not all posts in a particular category.)
• Tag archive listing pages.
  (Not all posts with the same tag.)

Any post or page not assigned a particular sidebar will display the primary sidebar, if sidebars are enabled for that post or page type.

Please note, using this simple sidebars tutorial and the Simple Sidebars plugin, you can not simply assign a sidebar to all posts in a category. But you can assign a sidebar to a category listing page. A category listing page lists all posts in a particular category in a blog style listing. The same applies to tags.

If you want to apply a particular sidebar to all posts in a category, you would have to choose the sidebar for each individual post. You could of course make your own sidebar using PHP and use a conditional tag to attach it to all posts in a category. But, if you know how to make your own sidebars using PHP, you probably won’t need this simple sidebars tutorial.

Before you start you need to install and activate the Simple Sidebars plugin by StudioPress.

To make a new Simple Sidebar go to…

• Dashboard > Genesis > Simple sidebars.

Type a…

• Name.
• ID.
• Description.

Click the add new sidebar button.

To select a sidebar for an individual page or blog post, when writing your post…

• Sidebar Selection. > Choose a Sidebar from the drop-down list.

If you want the sidebar to appear when a particular category listing page is being viewed, go to…

• Posts > Categories.
• Select a category.
• Sidebar Options > Primary Sidebar. > Choose a sidebar (from drop-down list).

Do the same for tags (Posts > Tags).