The Newspack Themes includes an optional Slide-out Sidebar widget area that’s available by clicking a button in the header.

On desktop-sized screens, the widget area will slide out from the left; you can also optionally include these widgets in the Mobile menu for smaller screens.

Using the Slide-out Sidebar Widget Area

To use the Slide-out widget area on your site, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Customizer (Dashboard > Appearance > Customize), and go to Widgets > Slide-out Sidebar.
  2. Pick widgets to add to this area. Some recommendations include Navigation Menus to add more links, or a Text Widget to add a simple paragraph or bit of information that you would like available on every page of your site. When using the Navigation Menu widget, you will also need to create a menu to add to it under Customize > Menus.
You can optionally add titles to the widgets in this area like in this screenshot, but they’re not required! You can omit the title by leaving the title field blank.
  1. Once the widgets are added, navigate to the Customizer (Dashboard > Appearance > Customize) and click Header Settings, then check the Show Slide-out Sidebar option:
  1. Click Publish to save your settings.

Once both the widget area is populated, and the Show Slide-out Sidebar option is checked, the Slide-out Sidebar will be visible on the front-end of your site.

When Short Header is unchecked under Dashboard > Appearance > Customize > Header Settings, the Slide-out Sidebar toggle will sit on the left side of the top section of the header, next to the Secondary Menu if populated:

When the Short Header option is checked, the Slide-out Sidebar toggle will display on the far left, in line with the logo. The text part of the label will be hidden, but still available to screen readers:

When you click on the Slide-out Sidebar toggle, the sidebar will appear from the left:

There are two other options for the Slide-out Sidebar that you can edit once it’s enabled under Dashboard > Appearance > Customize > Header Settings:

  1. Editing the text under Slide-out Sidebar Text will change the text that’s used for the sidebar toggle. It is visible when the Short Header is not checked, or available to screen readers when it is checked:
  1. The Slide-out Sidebar is not visible on mobile-sized screens, but you can check Add slide-out widgets to mobile menu to add the same widgets to the mobile menu, underneath your Custom Menus:

Recommended uses

The Slide-out Sidebar should not replace your site’s regular navigation — links that are immediately visible in the header are much more likely to be clicked compared to ones hidden behind a toggle.

Instead, it should be used for some supplementary navigation highlighting sections that may otherwise be a bit buried on the site, or to include brief information, like a short paragraph about your publication or a donation call-to-action.

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