If a webpage’s theme is the “UNC Department Theme,” custom sidebars can be enabled and utilized to promote information concerning various UNC academic departments from upcoming events to featured articles. This organizational tool of custom sidebars adds more variety while centralizing information to these webpages.
Activating the UNC Department Theme
To activate the UNC Department Theme, go to the “Dashboard Sidebar” –> “Appearances” –> “Themes.” Then type in “UNC Department” in the search bar –> click “Search Installed Themes.” The filtered result should appear below the search bar. Click “Activate.”
Adding Custom Sidebars
To add the custom sidebars to a page after activating the UNC Department theme, either create a new page or edit an existing page. Once the basic information to the page has been added (Title, Content, etc.), scroll down to “Custom Fields for Pages.”
Under the “Custom Fields for Pages,” click the “Enable Custom Left Sidebar” box, and “Enable Custom Right Sidebar.” This will prompt the theme to add the sidebars to the page. If only one is needed, simply prompt only one Custom Sidebar. After enabling the Custom Sidebars, add the information that will exist in the Custom Sidebars.
Adding headings to the content can create a more organized sidebar. To add a custom heading, highlight the text –> click on “Paragraph” –> scroll and click “Heading 2.” This will customize the text to have a blue heading, and will divide the sidebar.
Headers are useful as it will divide the information in the custom sidebar, and partition them into specific sections.
After finishing the content, go to the “Page Attributes” widget. Under “Template,” click on the description that best suits your use of the custom sidebars. If using only the left or right custom sidebar, choose the “Left Sidebar” or “Right Sidebar.” If using both the left and right custom sidebars, click on the “Dual Sidebars.” If the “Dual Sidebars” is not chosen, the template will only reveal the left sidebar as its default.
Click “Publish” when finished.
When the page is published, notice that there are custom sidebars appearing on either side of the Homepage content underneath the banner.
