Simple Sidebar Navigation – If this is so Simple Why Can’t I get it To Work

Hi Lomist,

sorry about your experience with the plugin. I guess “simplicity” has a biased meaning – it’s like riding a bike – it’s simple if you know how to do it.

Let me address your questions:

1. The multi-widget selector (at the bottom of the page) is available for versions 2.0.9 and earlier since they are not compatible with the WP 2.8. In WP 2.8 there is no need to create a separate multi-widget selector since the new WP version does it automatically.

2. “Sidebar 1”? Does it say Simple Sidebar Navigation 1 or just Sidebar 1? Because if it’s the last, you might be confusing widgets with the actual sidebars. You have to drag widgets inside the sidebars of your theme.

3. Simple Top Navigation is a TOP Navigation widget. In order for it to appear, you need to make some adjustment to your header template – it’s documented in the instructions for the plugin. You can read it here as well https://www.ibsteam.net/blog/web-development/simple-sidebar-navigation-plugin-wordpress – (scroll down to subtitle Top Navigation Management functionality)

4. Again, top navigation widget will not appear in the sidebar – you need to add a snippet of code into your header template for the top navigation to appear. See item 3.

I’m using the plugin on multiple blogs of my own (including WP versions 2.7 and 2.8) and have no problems. If you still can’t figure it out, I would appreciate some details:
– version of your WP installation;
– version of the Simple Sidebar plugin you’re using;
– have you upgraded from previous version of the plugin or you have a fresh install;
– a screenshot of your widgets admin page would be helpful as well.

Thank you for your reply. It helped a lot.

After reading through your explanations, I found out what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t dragging the widgets inside the gray rectangle called SIDEBAR 1. Once I did that everything was fine.

Now my next question

My side bar is something like this:

home
privacy
contact
sitemap
product 1
product 2
product 3

How do I (or can I) split these up and add these headings to make it look like this:

MAIN

home
privacy
contact
sitemap

PRODUCTS

product 1
product 2
product 3

Thanks again for your help

Bruce

Okay I figured out one way to put the headings in. (this is in regards to my above comment)

I used the text widget. But now I have a big space between the heading and the actual pages. Looks something like this

MAIN
——

Home
privacy
etc,

So how can I get rid of that blank line between the —- and Home.

I can’t find anything to edit to remove them or I would have.

Thanks again

BRuce

Bruce,

I’m glad you figured out what you were doing wrong. From your posts I understood you’re still very new to WordPress. Each widget appears within your theme as a block of content. Each block has design elements with it’s padding and margins. You can’t simply break a block. When you added a text widget for the sakes of creating a subtitle for your navigation, it also added it’s margins to it – that’s the reason you have the big space. If you want to separate sections of your navigation, it would be better to create separate simple sidenav widgets and title each widget the way you need it and add only those links that you want to appear in that section.

On the other hand, you can crate a hierarchy – you can have a Product link that leads to the main products page, and then add child links to it (they should appear indented).

Hope this helps.

hi, I’m also having trouble getting it to work properly. I’m a total newbie too…so that doesn’t help.
Basically the only time I see that it works is if I actually click on the page (in the top navigation) and then once I’m there, it looks all funny, not the way it should I don’t think.

what is the exact code I’m supposed to put in the header.php file?
I don’t really understand these instructions:

<?php
if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Simple Top Nav’) ) : ?>
<!–YOUR OLD NAVIGATION –>
<?php
endif;
?>

thanks!

Laura

My site is https://www.positivewordsonwater.com

Hi Laura,

I just looked at your site and I don’t see where you using the plugin.

As for the code – the exact code you published here should be pasted in the header.php file of your theme. You have to identify the logical place (in the HTML code of your header) where the navigation should go, and paste the code there. The line that contains <!–YOUR OLD NAVIGATION –> can stay unchanged, but if you have some kind of code for your current navigation, you could place it instead of that note. This way if, at some point, you decide you turn off the Simple Sidebar Navigation plugin, your old navigation will be used instead, so you don’t have to re-create it again.

Hope this helps.

removed question, found problem. Thanks.

I’m having problem registering with your Support Forum so I’ll try over here.

I’m not a total noob but I just can’t get it to work.

Quite simply, I drag it in, go to Add Pages and when I click, nothing happens… at all.

Any idea why that might be?

thnx,
Herb.

Hi Herb,

not sure how to help you. This is the first time I hear that it simply doesn’t work.

If you want, you can give me a temporary access to your WP backend and I’ll take a look. You can email me directly via this form https://www.ibsteam.net/contact

Thanks.

I’ve sent you an email using your contact form.

I’m guessing you couldn’t find the problem?

Hey Herb,

sorry I haven’t been monitoring this closely. I didn’t get an email from you either.

If you can, post a link to the site with the evidence of the broken plugin and I’ll try to take a look.

Thanks.

P.S. Promise to keep an eye on this thread for the next couple of days ??

Hi Max:

Great plugin, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to get child pages to appear indented. I am creating the child links correctly, I believe, but nothing happens visually on the site. I am using the plugin on a few sites and would love to support you if only we can figure out why the indentation isn’t working. What do you need from me to help figure this out?

Thanks in advance.

Hi there,

Indentation is a matter of the CSS and not a functionality of the plugin. If you drop a link to your site, I can definitely take a look and see what needs to be done to make the child links indented.