Installing Widgets on Older Wordpress Sites
Friday, August 8th, 2008 by FuzzFuzzMartin.com has been rockin’ the WordPress content management system for some years now. In fact, we were using it well before widgets became a feature of the WordPress system. Unfortunately, the instructions that tell you how to convert your pre-widgets site to be compatible is a nightmare.
It is, however, quite easy to do and there is no coding involved unless you want there to be.
Step 1:
Take a screenshot of your website so that you know the order of your sidebar content before you start picking it apart.
Step 2:
Backup your old “functions.php” and “sidebar.php” files that are located in /wp-content/themes/NAME_OF_YOUR_THEME/
Step 3:
Download the latest version of WordPress.
Step 4:
Copy the files, “functions.php” and “sidebar.php,” from the latest version of WP into your theme folder. f
Step 5:
Goto: /wp-admin/widgets.php and have fun!
YMMV. If you have edited your functions.php page, you might run yourself into some problems. In that case, you’ll have to follow the Automattic.com instructions.
Here’s the link they give you if your website isn’t currently setup for widgets: http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/
