Content Aware Sidebars Pro

Display rules for WordPress widget areas

Content Aware Sidebars Pro lets you create widget areas for specific parts of a WordPress website. Choose where, when, and to whom each area appears, and combine conditions such as a category and a particular author. You can also select a sidebar while editing a post or page.

Available contexts include posts, pages, custom post types, tags, categories, custom taxonomies, page templates, authors, archives, the front page, search results, and 404 pages. The plugin also supports bbPress profiles, forums and topics; BuddyPress profile sections and groups; Pods pages; and languages through supported translation integrations. Custom post types and taxonomies created by extensions or themes are autodetected.

Placement and scheduling controls

Pro includes display conditions for Advanced Custom Fields and Meta Box data, URLs with wildcards, referrer URLs, date archives, content by publish date, and BuddyPress groups. Random widget areas are also supported.

Insert widget areas after a selected number or percentage of paragraphs, or add them through theme hooks without coding. Sticky sidebars and widget areas are included; they use no jQuery and add no bloat. Schedule an area for selected time ranges on specified weekdays.

Design and widget management

The Widget Area Designer supports responsive widget columns and options for colors, backgrounds, padding, HTML, and CSS classes for widget areas, widgets, and widget titles. Automatic Widgets Backup can restore changed or deleted widgets. Widget Cleaner can disable and remove unused widgets, while Extended User Visibility delivers controls based on user roles, BuddyPress groups, and other supported settings. Sidebar Visibility can conceal areas from logged-out users.

The Container Widget makes widget areas reusable in multiple places. Other administration tools include Totem, a floating button for widgets; 1-Click Sidebar Activation; Live Search; a split-screen widget manager; and duplicate widget areas.

Integrations and setup

Use the plugin to create product-focused areas for WooCommerce, member-focused areas for BuddyPress, forum areas for bbPress, or language-specific areas through supported translation integrations. Other supported integrations include Easy Digital Downloads, Pods, Polylang, TranslatePress, Transposh, Weglot, and WPML. The plugin can also work alongside Elementor, SiteOrigin Page Builder, Beaver Builder, and Visual Composer.

Install and activate the Pro edition in WordPress, then open the Content Aware Sidebars settings. Create a widget area, choose its display conditions, set any schedule or visibility rules, and assign widgets. Select the area while editing content, or use paragraph placement or a supported theme hook. Preview it and adjust the styling settings as needed.