ArtDroid comes with a layout system which lets you specify custom layouts and populate them with custom sidebars.

You can create custom re-usable sidebars, in which widgets can be placed. Each sidebar can be placed onto any layout by context, and overridden on a per page basis.

 

Add a Sidebar

To create a custom sidebar:

  1. Login to your site, and go into the WordPress admin.
  2. On the left menu, select ArtDroid › Sidebars.
  3. Press ‘Add New Sidebar’ to create a new sidebar.
  4. Give the sidebar a name which is recognizable, such as ‘Pages Sidebar‘, and an optional description.
  5. Press Save, at the bottom right.

That’s it now you’ve created your first sidebar! The next steps to get it working are to:

  1. Add it to a layout.
  2. Add widgets to the sidebar.

Here we’ll go in depth on how to do that.

 

Add Sidebar to a Layout

To add a sidebar to a layout, follow these directions:

  1. On the left menu in the WordPress admin, select ArtDroid › Layouts.
  2. Here you can customize layouts on a per context basis. Contexts available for customization:
    • Default – If no other layout is defined, this setting will be used.
    • Home – The home page
    • Page – All pages, can be overridden on a per page basis
    • Post – All posts
    • Archive – All archives, such as year, month, day as well as taxonomies
    • Search – The search results page
    • Blog : Single – Single blog post
    • Blog : Archive – Blog archives, including the blog’s main page.
    • Category : Archive – Category term archive pages
    • Tag : Archive – Tag archive pages
    • Blog Category : Archive – Blog category archive pages
  3. For each context, the following layouts are available:
    • Full Width
    • Left Sidebar
    • Right Sidebar
    • Left & Right Sidebar
  4. On a context that you want to add the sidebar, ie. Page, click Default then select the desired layout, such as Right Sidebar.
  5. Click Select Sidebar and select your newly created sidebar.
    • By clicking Responsive, the width of each sidebar can be responsively defined, so that it changes based on the width of the viewer’s screen.
  6. Press Save.

Now you’ve created a sidebar and assigned it to a layout. Now all that’s left to do is add widgets to the sidebar.

 

Add Widgets to Sidebar

  1. On the left menu in the WordPress admin, select Appearance › Widgets.
  2. Drag and drop widgets that you want in your sidebar.

That’s it! Now you can check out your site, and see the sidebar in action.

 

Override Layout on Pages

To override the layout on particular pages, to display a different layout or sidebar just for that page:

  1. Go to the page editing screen.
    • Press Edit Page in the top admin bar on the page itself, or edit the page directly in the admin under Pages.
  2. Scroll down and locate the Layout window.
  3. Here, select which layout type you want and specify which sidebars you want to use for this page only.
  4. Press Update on the page.