Installed a great plugin but want the widget it comes with in your content area?
Widgets are great but they generally can only be used in a widget area.
Unless of course you can simply create a shortcode for that widget.
Then you can insert the shortcode anywhere you like within your posts and pages.
You’ll find a list of 3 hook plugins near the end of this post about WordPress hooks which you can use to execute shortcodes in any hook location.
Free Plugin
This is a plugin which makes it easy to create a shortcode for any plugin which uses widgets.
The plugin will create a new widget area where you can drag any widget into.
In this screenshot i have dragged the Jetpack blog subscriptions widget so i can display the subscription form within the content area of a posts.
To display a widget in all areas of posts or pages, you can install a hook plugin and execute the hook in any area there’s a hook depending on the theme you are using.
You’ll find a list of the shortcodes to use on the plugin page.
You’ll also need to find the i.d for the widget you want to use and insert it into the shortcode.
Finding Widget Name
To find the name of the widget and its i.d, simply right click the widget you have dragged into the shortcodes sidebar and click Inspect Element.
As you can see in this screenshot, the widget name and i.d are: widget-33_blog_subscription-2
Insert the shortcode with the widget name
Example: [do_widget id=blog_subscription-2]
You don’t insert the widget i.d just the name as shown above.
I tested this and it works fine.
Its also a great way to insert the Jetpack subscriptions widget into your posts.
Widgets on Pages
Tested this plugin as well and works. Simply follow the instructions on the plugin installation page and insert the short code.
Premium Plugin
Another plugin which also does this is the Custom Widget Areas for WordPress plugin. Its a premium plugin and does pretty much the same thing as the amr plugin.
It adds a small icon to your editor so all you need to do is click the icon and insert the shortcode anywhere you want to display the widget.
Brad Dalton
@wpsitesdotnet
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Nice plugin, as it is free then best suited for beginners who can’t afford premium.
Hi Manish
Here’s another which is more popular: Widgets on Pages
Its a good Plugin., I hope to more plugins, I’m also looking for an affiliate plugin, something similar to InfoLinks, where in can select a particular word from the complete blog and put an affiliate link., can you suggest anything similar to this
Thanks once again
Ninja Affiliate – This is the best plugin which will do this with keywords automatically.
There’s No free plugin which will do this automatically
Brad, would you recommend this over say, OptinSkin plugin? which is $47, but it does look better I guess.
Is there a way to style the Jet Pack subscription form?
Hi Chris
Won’t look as good unless you get some really good CSS which depends on your theme’s forum support.
I know the guys at Kolakube are really good with this side of things. Not the same at Studiopress.
What did you think of OptinSkin Chris?
Hey Brad,
I just posted a similar question in the WOO Ideas forum (see comment about Widgetized Home Page. It’s linking to this screencast showing what I’m looking to accomplish (widgetized templates like the footers?).
So I asked the WOO team and I’d love to see it built into Canvas. I know you’re more of a Genesis guy, but any thoughts on this?
Thanks, Brad!
Hi Bradley. Sorry for the late reply.
Fell off my motorbike and broke a few ribs!!
I’ll take a look at it and reply here shortly. Cheers
Viewed your vid. Great idea Bradley and something i would like to see in Genesis child themes. You could use a Genesis home.php file and try and create a widgetized template for Woo themes from it.
Hey Brad,
I put a comment in here yesterday, but it had a few links in it. Maybe it got Akismetted! Thanks for checking!
Best,
Bradley