How to Add Shortcode Capability to Your WordPress Sidebar Widgets in Under 5 minutes

Author, Brandon Rosenthal

Shortcodes allow designers to quickly put elements of a wordpress site in any page or post easily. Plugins weigh sites down and you never know who the author of the code is or the integrity of the code...and worse is that some plugins will create problems with other plugins which is a nightmare to fix.

Below is a simple way to add shortcode to widgets in less than five minutes...

Step 1: Open Your FTP Client and Connect to Your Site
Need a FTP client? Click here to download Filezilla, the best free ftp solution. I have used it for many years and it is known as the best free FTP client solution on the market.

Step 2: Navigate to root/wp-content/themes/ and then open the folder with your active WordPress Theme.

Step 3: Download functions.php to your desktop. (OR IF USING FILEZILLA, you can simply right click and select View/Edit)

Step 4: Open the functions.php file in Notepad or your choice of HTML editor. Then add this snippet of code to the very bottom of the functions.php file.

add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');

Step 5:  Upload the updated functions.php and overwrite the old version and YOU ARE DONE.

That is all for this edition of how to make your wordpress designing easier. Hope this helps you avoid bad plugins that slow down your machine and frustration that comes with not being able to do what you want!

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Brandon Rosenthal VP

Effective, cross functional problem solver with an entrepreneurial mind. Expertise in digital strategy, custom manufacturing, and integrating the two so companies in any industry can become best-in-class leaders and innovators in the new digital business environment.