Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
II
Links to these content providers and more are available on the Text Widgets page in the WordPress
Codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Widgets#Using_Text_Widgets
caution
We'll briefly repeat the kid-in-a-candy-store warning that we gave with regard to widgets in Chapter 3; it's espe-
cially relevant when you see all the content providers for the Text widget. If you use more than a few widgets,
including different versions of the Text widget, your visitors are likely to ignore most or even all of them. Be
somewhat selective in deciding how many Text widgets to try on your blog; then try them, and be even more
selective in deciding which ones to keep. Focus on relevance to your own blog as the deciding factor. (You can
also ask your blog visitors to contribute their opinions on which widgets are best; that's part of what a blog's
for, isn't it?)
Things You Can Do with the Text Widget
Now that you've seen some of the great things content providers can give you for the Text widget,
what can you do with the Text widget yourself?
Here are just a few ideas to get you started:
•
Lists of key posts
—You can list your top posts of all time, or by a specific topic. You can link to
the most commented posts. You can create a “getting started” list on your main topic(s) for new-
comers. This can be a great way to help people get to know your blog.
•
About you/about your topic
—You can give a few words of introduction or welcome and perhaps
links to a few key resources, on or off your blog.
•
Picture directory of contributors
—You can create a directory of blog contributors with their
photos.
For more on the Text widget from WordPress.com support, visit http://support.wordpress.com/
widgets/text-widget/.
The Text widget can contain text, HTML code, and small images. At one time, JavaScript was
allowed, but it caused too many problems. The Text widget cannot contain code such as JavaScript
or Flash.
Getting Images into the Text Widget
The easiest way to get an image into the Text widget is to upload it to the WordPress Media
Library, as described in Chapter 9. Then use the URL from the Media Library in the Text widget. The
HTML looks like this:
<img href=”
URL
”>
, where
URL
is the web address of the image provided by
the Media Library.
