How To: Creating Sidebar Tabs In Your WordPress Theme

As blogging continues to evolve and WordPress themes continue to become more functional, it is my belief that we will start to see more themes using tabs to help manage sidebar content. The problem with sidebar tabs is that they require Javascript to use, so very few themes seem to be using them.

I won’t claim to be a whiz with javascript, but I found that creating tabs was not overly difficult. I’ve recently switched a section of my sidebar over to tabs on my other primary blog, Slick Affiliate, to help manage my sidebar content. So far I am very happy with the results. It allows me to provide readers with a bunch of different site navigation options while not really taking up any extra room, so people that want it can use and it isn’t in the way for people that don’t want to browse archives or see my top commentators.

If you are interested in doing something similar for your weblog, Headset Options wrote a series of posts studying the anatomy of a Magazine WordPress theme. The second post is actually dedicated to covering some types of javascript and focuses on Domtab and Tabber. You’ll find a nice examination and then a tutorial of how to add this to your WordPress blog. If you aren’t familiar with either type of javascript, I recommend you start with Tabber, as it is quite a bit easier to work with in my opinion.

What is your opinion of sidebar tabs? Do you find it more convenient or does it make the content harder to find?