Static Homepages and EZ Widget Areas

In last week’s post I looked at those EZ Widget Areas that can be used in conjunction with any type of homepage such as the Default WordPress Homepage, or as we’ll see in this post, a homepage that uses the Static Homepage EZ Widget Areas as well.

Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas

The Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas allow for a fully widgetized Static Homepage to be used in place of the Default WordPress Homepage.

They come into effect when the Static Homepage option is set using the Homepage Type setting at the top of the Dynamik > EZ options as seen here:

Selecting an EZ Static Homepage

The next option allows us to define the layout structure of the Static Homepage Widgets, with every combination of EZ Widget Areas from 1 widget area to 3 rows of 3 widget areas catered for as shown in these examples…

Example of EZ Static Homepage Layouts

The remaining options in the Static Homepage EZ-Widget Areas section allow for the styling of these Widget Areas, their fonts, backgrounds and borders etc.

Once the layout is selected, the EZ Widget Areas are added to the other Widget Areas in the WordPress Appearance > Widgets menu and into which any widget based content can then be dragged and dropped as desired.

Added to Widget Areas in WordPress Widgets Menu

The result you might get from something like that is shown below where a 3_3_3 Static Homepage Layout has been used.

Static Homepage with EZ Widget Areas

This example shows the basic EZ Widget structure and functionality for an EZ-Widget Area Based Static Homepage.

Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas

As shown in last weeks post, the Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas can also be included on a Homepage including a widgetized static homepage like the one shown above.

This could give a result like this:

Homepage with Added Feature Top and Fat Footer EZ Widget Areas

Static Homepage EZ Extras

What you might have noticed from the above example is that this Homepage lacks a sidebar!

And of course, Catalyst Theme caters for those occasions when you might want to include one here too!

The Static Homepage Sidebar is included in the Homepage EZ Widget Area Extra section and allows a single sidebar to be added to either the left or right side of the Static Homepage Widget areas.

Once activated, the widget area will appear in WordPress > Appearance > Widgets menu where widget content can be added (to match the widget content in other sidebar widget areas for example).

Here we see it added to the right hand side (highlighted with a bit of CSS code for effect):

With Added Static Homepage Sidebar

And finally, as shown in last week’s post, we can also add the Homepage Slider to this type of Homepage too for a totally maxed out Widgetized Static Homepage!!

Maxed Out Widgetized Homepage

I hope you’ve found these posts useful in highlighting the total flexibility that Catalyst Theme can provide for Homepage layout and structure options.

Have fun!

David.

David Pritchard is the author of the Catalyst Theme Cheat Sheet – the 250+ page guide that helps users make the most of Catalyst Theme. Licenced Catalyst Theme users can get their FREE copy in the downloads section of the Catalyst Theme forum.

David also has a site that with guides to using Catalyst Theme, WordPress, SEO, internet marketing techniques and other topics at http://www.FastStepInternetMarketing.com