How to Customize the Sidebar

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

About the Sidebar

 

Your sidebar is a side menu for displaying menus, products, images, collections, and more along the side of your products, collections, search, or blog pages. This area can be used to link hot items or collections, or advertise through images. 

 

It is important to note that this sidebar does not change across differing types of pages. Whatever your store has set to your product sidebar will be seen across all product pages; though this may be different from the collection pages' sidebar. This allows for you to highlight the most important items or collections for display across types of pages instead of individually tailoring the sidebar menu for each specific page.

 

Organizing the Sidebar 

 

Finding the Sidebar

Before you begin your customization, follow these steps to find/enable the Sidebar:

  1. From your myShopify homepage, go to Online Store > Themes
  2. Find and click Customize
  3. You will notice the customization menu along the left side of the screen. Please click Theme Settings > Sidebar
  4. From here, you can choose on which pages you would like to have your sidebar enabled
  5. Following this, you can visit any of the enabled pages, such as any Product Page, Collection Page, Search Page, or Blog Page 
  6. From here you can will notice the customization menu on the left side. Please find and select Sidebar

 

You may notice that there is still an option to add a sidebar to your homepage. If you add this section to your homepage (or to any page), it will only function as another collections section

 

Customizing the Sidebar

To add or enable the different sections of your sidebar, you will need to find the customization menu along the left side of the page and expand the Sidebar section. From here, you can click Add Block to see which theme blocks are available under your sidebar. This menu consists of the following sections:

  • Filter
  • Collection
  • Banner
  • Sidebar Link

 

These sections are not fixed in this order. You will have the ability to edit and organize your sidebar as your store sees fit

 

Filter

This section allows for you add a page filter section to your sidebar. With this filter block, your customers can add product filters to your searches while browsing webpages.

 

You can enable or disable this feature by clicking on Sidebar > Category Filter Configuration > Show BinderPOS TCG Filter

 

This Filter functions only to filter through TCG and will not work with other products. This filter function is not to be confused with the Advanced Search function. Please also note that, because this filter is targeted towards TCG, it will adjust to filter between differing games, such as MTG. Pokémon, etc.
It is also important to note that both the Filter and Sidebar Link functions can only be added to your sidebar once

 

Collection

Collection blocks are links that allow for your store to link specific products across different pages. This may include new items, hot items, or event items. The collection divisions are flexible and will differ from store to store.

 

You are not limited in how many Collection Blocks you add to your Sidebar, though, generally, the less cluttered it is, the more appealing it will be to your customers

 

This collection block is divided into several sub-categories:

  • Main Title
  • Collection
  • Products to Display in Collection
  • Show 'View All' Button for Collection

 

Main Title

This text box is where you will input the title of your Collection Block. We recommend that you choose a name that fits the culture and atmosphere of your store.

 

Select Your Collection

Here you will be able to link collections that you have already organized. If you have not already created any collections, you can check out How to Add and Manage Collections

 

In order to link your collections for display in the sidebar, click Select Collection and choose the collection that your store feels is best to display here. Please remember that you can display different collections in each of the Collection Blocks you add.

 

Products to Display in Collection

This section is centered around a cline where you can drag to select the number of products to be displayed in your collection block. You can select any number from 2 to 5.

 

The items are displayed from top to bottom, not left to right

 

Show 'View All' Button for Collection

By toggling Show 'View All' Button for Collection On/Off, you can enable/disable a button at the bottom of your site's collection box(es) that link to the full collection, not just the 2-5 products visible on your sidebar

 

This is a miniature banner that you can add for displaying specific events, products, or information. This section is divided into several sub-categories:

  • Image
  • Hover
  • Scale Banner
  • Link

 

Banner Blocks, like Collection Blocks, can be added several times. If you want to advertise with multiple banners, you can add as many as your store wants

 

Image

In this section, you have the option to attach an image to your banner. To do this, click Image > Select Image and choose the image your store wants to display as your banner. Please note that there is a recommended image size. It will look something like this:

 

 

Please note that the recommended image size is the optimal size for clearly viewing your image over several devices, like PC, smartphones, handheld video game consoles, etc. If you choose an image that is smaller or larger than the recommended size, the quality of the image may suffer

 

Hover

Here you can choose an animation for when you hover your mouse's cursor over the banner image. We recommend choosing an animation that matches your banner image and store culture.

 

Scale Banner

This portion of the block customization is dedicated to toggling this section On/Off. In order to scale or descale your banner image, select the box next to Scale Banner. This feature allows for optimization and fitting of the banner image you have chosen.

 

Link

In the text box in this section, you can input a link to another site or you can select another page from your store's website through the drop-down menu. That menu will look something like this:

 

 

The Sidebar Link section is focused on allowing a menu to be linked to your sidebar. For more information on creating menus, please check out these help articles from Shopify.

 

Under Sidebar Link > Category Links > Select Menu, you will be able to: browse through created menus, create a new menu, or link the default Footer menu or Main menu. We recommend that you experiment with the menus you want to link, if any.

 

It is also important to remember that both Filter and Sidebar Link functions can only be added to your sidebar once

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