Some templates in version 7.0 display content sidebars as part of their layout. These are editable areas where you can add text, images, links, and more. Depending on the template, they may only appear on specific collection pages, like Blog Pages, or site-wide.

Some templates also display navigation links in a sidebar, rather than at the top of the site.

This guide explains how to add blocks to a content sidebar and which templates offer sidebars.

Sidebars are only available in version 7.0.

Before you begin

• Sidebar content doesn't transfer between templates. To learn more, visit Switching templates.
• In most templates, content sidebars display at the bottom of the page when viewed on mobile devices. In Ishimoto, sidebars don't display on mobile devices. To learn more, visit How will my site appear on mobile devices?
• Change the fonts, colors, or other sidebar styles with site styles.

Open a sidebar editor

To edit a content sidebar, open a page on your site where the sidebar displays. Hover over the sidebar and click Edit in the annotation.

On smaller screens, your sidebar may appear at the bottom of the page. Hover over the content area to confirm that the annotation is labeled Sidebar before editing.

Add content with blocks

Click an insert point, then choose a block from the menu to add it to the sidebar. One of the best blocks for the sidebar is the archive block. You can use this to create text-only lists of content by date, category, tag, or author.

Some popular blocks for sidebars are:

• Archive block - Add an organized list of content links.
• Text block - Add any custom text.
• Newsletter block - Add a newsletter subscription form.
• Tag cloud block - Add a graphic cloud of tags.
• Line block - Add dividers between blocks.

Continue adding blocks until you've added all your desired content to the sidebar.

Create layouts

To preserve the width of a sidebar, content blocks can only be stacked on top of each other. To reorder the content in a sidebar, click and drag the blocks. To learn more, visit Moving blocks. 

Click Save to publish your changes. Depending upon your template, the blocks in your page sidebar will appear similar to this:

Content sidebar options by template

Before making changes to a sidebar’s display in site styles, first navigate to a page that shows the sidebar, then to the Design panel. That way you'll see the relevant tweaks.

Here's how to edit the content sidebars in these template families:

Navigation sidebars

These template families support sidebar navigation. Click the links to learn more.

• Aviator - Offset or Business Card layouts create a site-wide sidebar navigation
• Bedford - Sidebar navigation displays on pages in folders and index pages.
• Five - When you select Top Navigation Position: None, the navigation links move into the content sidebar.
• Supply - Site-wide navigation sidebar
• Wells - Site-wide navigation sidebar with editable content area

To change what displays in navigation sidebars:

• Add and rearrange the links in the Pages panel.
• If the site title, logo, and tagline display in the sidebar navigation, adjust them in the Site title & logo panel.

In version 7.1, the product category navigation can display at the top of a page or in a sidebar. To learn more, visit Styling store pages.