Title: Widget Help , settings, functioning etc
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Widget Help , settings, functioning etc

 *  Plugin Author [anmari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/anmari/)
 * (@anmari)
 * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-help-settings-functioning-etc/)
 * HI all, I fing myself repeating the following many times to folks.
 * The “shortcode any widget” plugin does not **‘know’** anything about the individual
   widgets you may be using. There are are over 3000 widget plugins, never mind 
   others that may have widgets in them.
    What the plugin does is :
    1. give you a theme independent sidebar that you can use to define tre widgets 
       settings using the widgets user interface. Any questions on the functioning 
       there – post on the widgets support forum.
    2. call the widget from a shortcode function, trapping the output so it can be 
       returned as a shortcode result. It does this dumbly/generically with NO knowledge
       of the widget which could be any of the 3000+.
        Ideally the widget plugin would
       also have a shortcode option. (Widgets ‘echo’ output immediately while shortcodes
       build and return the output to be passed back to a content filter.)
 * Again if you have any queries about the widget functionality, post it on the 
   widgets support forum.
 * **BEST SETUP APPROACH:**
    - Get the widget working the way you want it wrt to content in one of your theme’s
      sidebars.
    - THEN drag that instance (and thus all it’s settings) to the ‘widgets for shortcode’
      sidebar. It should work the same. Styling may be different but content should
      be the same.
 * If the content/behaviour changes between normal sidebar and shortcode sidebar,
   it is possible that something interferes (another plugin?) and/or that something
   the widget plugin does is not anticipating that it would used in a shortcode.
   Again there is very little that I or this plugin can do about it.
 * Put the request to the widget developers. Maybe they’ll code up a quick shortcode
   version instead (I do it both ways for my plugins, it is not that hard!) – then
   you won’t need this plugin!
 * So please, please, only post a question on this forum if it relates to the ‘shortcode
   any widget’ plugin generically and not specifically to the widget you using.
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/amr-shortcode-any-widget/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/amr-shortcode-any-widget/)

The topic ‘Widget Help , settings, functioning etc’ is closed to new replies.

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 * [amr shortcode any widget](https://wordpress.org/plugins/amr-shortcode-any-widget/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/amr-shortcode-any-widget/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amr-shortcode-any-widget/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amr-shortcode-any-widget/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amr-shortcode-any-widget/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/amr-shortcode-any-widget/reviews/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [anmari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/anmari/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/widget-help-settings-functioning-etc/)
 * Status: not a support question