Create and assign sidebars

A sidebar is a registered WordPress widget area. POM Theme always provides Main sidebar and Secondary sidebar and lets you add named custom sidebars for recurring content needs.

Widget titles that use the theme's title wrapper are level-two headings (h2) in the main, secondary, custom, and footer widget areas. Give each widget a concise title that describes its content so visitors can find it through heading navigation.

Create a custom sidebar

1. Open Settings → POM Theme → Site layout → Sidebars → Custom sidebars.
2. In Custom sidebars, select Add sidebar.
3. Enter a unique Sidebar name that describes its public purpose, such as “Article resources”.
4. Add and reorder any additional sidebars.
5. Save the theme settings.
6. Open Appearance → Widgets.
7. Add widgets to the newly registered area.

When at least one custom sidebar exists, POM Theme also registers Before default sidebar and After default sidebar. Widgets placed there render around the selected primary sidebar area. Use them only for content that should accompany every selected default or custom sidebar.

Assign a sidebar to a layout

Creating a widget area does not display it by itself. Open the POM Theme section for the target content and select its sidebar layout and registered sidebar.

Supported sections include:

• Post archives and single posts
• Author archives
• Search results
• Single and archive layouts for configured custom post types
• Product archives and single products when WooCommerce is active

Depending on the section, layout choices can include left, right, both, contained without a sidebar, or full-width without a sidebar. A two-sidebar layout uses Secondary sidebar as the second area.

Recent Comments appearance

The classic Recent Comments widget uses POM's widget styles automatically. Author and post links remain inline and inherit the theme's link presentation. POM suppresses the redundant WordPress inline rule, so no POM Tweaks option or extra stylesheet is needed.

This applies to the classic widget in sidebar and footer areas. Native comment blocks, comment forms and threaded replies retain their required styles and scripts. Check the widget on a public page and test its links with a keyboard. When changing its presentation through custom CSS, keep the selectors scoped to that widget.

Apply sticky behavior selectively

Sticky controls are available only in the layouts that expose them, including single posts and WooCommerce layouts. Enable stickiness after the widget content is final: a sidebar taller than the viewport can make the page difficult to navigate.

On desktop, a sticky sidebar stays below the visible part of a fixed header. If Auto hide header on scroll is enabled, the sidebar reuses the released space while the header is hidden and moves below the header again when it returns.

In ordinary page layouts, the sidebar stays anchored to the viewport once it reaches the sticky edge, keeping its column width and original space in the page. It releases at the end of the adjacent content column. Sidebars inside sticky rows, transformed containers or layouts controlled by scroll animations retain their containing layout's positioning behavior.

Sidebars taller than the viewport follow the scroll direction so their top and bottom content remain reachable. Content and sibling-column size changes refresh the sticky boundary. At widths of 768 px and below, the sidebar returns to its normal layout; resizing back to desktop restores sticky behavior using the current dimensions.

Verify the assignment

1. Open a representative public URL for the configured content type.
2. Confirm the expected widget area appears on the selected side.
3. If Both is selected, confirm the secondary area also appears.
4. Check that Before default sidebar and After default sidebar content is intentional.
5. Review the page at desktop, tablet, and mobile widths.
6. Test sticky behavior on both a short and a long page, scrolling down and back up with the configured header state.
7. Expand any sidebar accordions, then continue to the end of the adjacent content. Confirm the sidebar remains within that content boundary and does not cover the following section.

If a custom sidebar is missing from a selector, save Custom sidebars. first and reload the target settings section. If the sidebar is visible but empty, add its widgets under Appearance → Widgets.