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How do I set the widget image?

The widget gets its image from the "Featured Image" field on the page you are featuring.

1. Go to the page you're featuring.
2. In the right sidebar, look for the "Set Featured Image" link.
3. Use the media picker to find the image and then select "Use as Featured Image."
4. Update the page and you're ready to go.

How do I set the widget text?

The widget gets its text from the "Excerpt" field on the page you are featuring. See also: "Can I use HTML or a WYSIWYG/TinyMCE Editor with the Excerpt Field?"

1. Go to the page you want to featured.
2. Below the body field, look for the "Excerpt" field.
3. Fill it in.
4. Update the page.

Where do I find the Featured Image or Excerpt fields? I don't see them.

The Featured Image and Excerpt fields are found on the Page editing screen of the Page you want to feature. If you don't see them: 1. In the top right corner of any Page, click "Screen Options." 1. From the menu that slides down, make sure the "Excerpt" and "Featured Image" are both checked. 1. WordPress will remember this choice on all pages.

What are those icons in the "Select Page" drop down? / How can I tell if a page has a featured image or excerpt already?

When selecting the page to feature in the widget settings, the list of pages includes two icons. The first icon is the featured image, and the second is the excerpt. If the icon is "lit-up," that means that page has that piece of information. If both are lit-up, the page is ready for optimal use in the widget. See this interface in the "Screenshots" tab.

How can I modify the widget design or output?

The widget offers three ways to customize its design and output. The right method for you depends on what you want to accomplish and what you're comfortable doing technically.

1. Write your own CSS rules. The plugin's CSS selectors have as low a priority as possible, so you should be able to override styles easily.
2. Filter the Title, Excerpt, or Image. The plugin gives you three filters to modify the outputs in the widget: fpw_page_title, fpw_excerpt, and fpw_featured_image. The widget's title also goes through the widget_title filter.
   • Those comfortable writing filters can see the specifics in fpw_widget.class.php.
   • See the next FAQ for an example of adding a "Read More…" link.
3. Override the Widget's output template. The widget output can be overridden by a template in any parent or child theme. Copy the /fpw_views/ folder from the plugin's folder to your theme's folder (or child theme folder!) and modify fpw_default.php to your heart's content. The template itself contains additional information on what data is available to work with.

Can I use HTML or a WYSIWYG/TinyMCE Editor with the Excerpt Field?

Install the Rich Text Excerpts plugin or Advanced Excerpt plugins. Either plugin should take note and display your nicely formatted excerpt.

How can I get a "Read More…" link?

This may become a widget option some day. For now, it's easy to add with a filter. Place this code in your theme's functions.php file or in a functionality plugin:

function fapw_custom_read_more_link( $excerpt, $featured_page_id ) {
    return $excerpt . ' <a href="' . get_permalink( $featured_page_id ) . '">Read More…</a>';
}
add_filter( 'fpw_excerpt', 'fapw_custom_read_more_link', 10, 2 );

How do I change the image's size?

Asked and answered in the support forum thread: "Changing the default thumbnail size"

I need to support IE8 and my theme doesn't use HTML5

If you are having trouble with this widget's layout in IE8, it may be due to the use of the <article> element in the widget. Double-check that your theme isn't using the HTML5 shiv/shim. If it's not, then adding the following to your theme's functions.php file may fix the issue (snippet source):

// add ie conditional html5 shim to header
function add_ie_html5_shim () {
    global $is_IE;
    if ($is_IE)
    echo '<!--[if lt IE 9]>';
        echo '<script src="http://html5shim.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>';
        echo '<![endif]-->';
}
add_action('wp_head', 'add_ie_html5_shim');

This widget isn't what I want...

This widget is intended to be straightforward and avoid melting into "option soup." However, that means it might not be perfect for what you need.

If you think the widget is almost right, double-check that can't use the one of the plugin's filters or the widget view template (see "I want to modify how the widget looks/works"). If that doesn't work, submit some feedback or vote on possible features for future versions of the plugins. And of course, there's always the support forum.

If this plugin is more than a little off, you might be looking for a different plugin like Posts in Sidebar, Query Posts Widget, Featured Page Widget, or Simple Featured Posts Widget.

How do you make the "Featured page" select list look so cool?

I'm using the Chosen jQuery plugin. It's awesome. I first saw it in Gravity Forms.