How to install a slider on the WordPress home page. Choosing the Best Slider for WordPress

At the same time, there is support for localization using po/mo files. As an additional bonus, we can mention lightbox support when viewing large images, which implies the ability to enlarge the image by clicking.

TN3 Gallery Slider


Slider for WordPress TN3 Gallery has the advantages of other sliders, such as image previews, good layout and other goodies mentioned above when describing other plugins.

True, it has one small distinctive feature, which is mobile device support, which today is a very rare thing and which, you see, simply cannot but please.

To be fair, it should be noted that this advantage is compensated by two disadvantages: to download the plugin, you must register and it is not currently a version that supports working with WordPress. There is only a script option available, although the capabilities of TN3 Gallery are worth a little digging into the settings and installation method.

Plugin page

WordPress Content Slide


A slider for WordPress called WordPress Content Slide is designed to organize image sliders on your own resource.

For obvious reasons, such functionality is not necessary for all sites. Although if you look at the search queries of many users, you will find that just such a slider is being sought by a fairly large number of people who need a slider with similar functions, while being easy to manage and configure.

All that can be said about the WordPress Content Slide plugin is that it is small, has good settings from the admin panel, and is completely customizable externally according to the user’s wishes. And what really works.

In fact, this is a fairly powerful slider, as can be judged by the settings, which almost anyone can figure out.

Slider ISlidex


The ISlidex slider can be called a pretty good plugin that supports several themes at the same time.

As the developers themselves promise, over time the possibility of SEO-layout, automatic cropping and caching of images, and support for WordPress 3.x will be added. and cross-browser compatibility up to IE7.

Additional qualities of ISlidex include the ability to be embedded in a widget, which significantly increases the value of this slider.

Slider RoyalSlider


I would also like to mention such a plugin as RoyalSlider, which I recently came across. After meeting him, I was left with only pleasant impressions and memories, even despite the fact that he was paid.

A slider for WordPress called RoyalSlider can show the user everything he wants.

The plugin comes with more than 10 output templates, support for mobile devices, its own API and many other nice goodies that everyone should familiarize themselves with personally.

In my humble opinion, RoyalSlider is the best slider available today. The cost of this pleasure is only $12, and all subsequent versions will be free for you.

In addition, according to the developers themselves, RoyalSlider is the only plugin today that is able to fully support IE10 installed in Win8.

Sliders, today I want to present several plugins on which these sources can be loaded. Plus, a short description of each plugin, so as not to download a “pig in a poke”. Nobody likes checking once again what the plugin can do and its performance, right? I’ll say right away that all sliders are in plugin format for WordPress, so there shouldn’t be any problems with installation and configuration.

Coin Slider

One of the best, in my opinion, in terms of customization and simultaneous simplicity, but loses to Nivo, which is lower. Allows you to set the image size from the admin panel without delving into the jungle of code. Added by changing the template. There are no previews, which is sad.

Nivo Slider


Truly the king of sliders. To be honest, I don’t really recommend using the WordPress plugin because it hasn’t been updated for a long time, unlike the script. And the latest version for WordPress is paid. Or, as an option, adapt a new script to the old plugin shell, but this requires more serious knowledge. 16 options for changing the image, support for themes, previews, excellent and valid layout, rich settings. I have not yet come across a script that would do Nivo.

Content Slider from SlideDeck


Another very fancy slider, but now it’s a content slider. Very rich settings, integration into the post editor, several themes included. It is possible to insert different sliders into each post. There is a Pro version that can do a bunch of other cool things, but the price of $99 per slider really, really confuses me.

Meteor Slides


This candidate is simpler, but he also has his own trick. Firstly, it can be embedded using a shortcode, which is convenient. Secondly, it can create multiple slideshows that can be used in different places. Thirdly, it can be embedded into a sidebar as a widget. And then rotate the pictures. Pretty cool in my opinion. And yes, Russian support is included

Slideshow Gallery


This slider can also work with the WordPress post editor, can also be embedded with a shortcode and has image previews. Localization support using po/mo files. Plus, for large images, a lightbox is supported, that is, the image can be enlarged by clicking.

TN3 Gallery


A good plugin, with image previews, good layout and other goodies. But he has an excellent feature - he supports, which is quite a rare thing at the moment. But there is also a minus, even two, to download you need to register and there is no version for WordPress. Only a script option, but the slider's capabilities are worth a little effort to install.

WordPress Content Slide


What can I say about this plugin? It is small, completely customizable in appearance, and has good settings from the admin panel. And it works.

ISlidex


A very good slider with support for several themes. The authors promise SEO layout, automatic cropping and caching of images, cross-browser compatibility up to IE7 and support for WordPress 3.x. It can also be embedded in a widget, which significantly increases its value.


24.01.2013 — I’ll add one more plugin that I had to deal with. It left the most pleasant impressions, despite the fact that it is paid.

He will be able to show you anything you want. More than 10 output templates included, its own API, support for mobile devices and a bunch of other goodies. Believe me, this is the best slider today. And it's worth everything 12$ , of course, all subsequent versions are free. Yes, as the developer claims, this plugin is the only one that fully supports IE10, which is installed in Win8.

Yesterday, the buyer of my auto-filled blog about news in the world of computer games contacted me in a letter with a question about how to set up the slider in a website template made in WordPress.

I'll try to clarify the situation a little. Nowadays there are quite a lot of resources on the Internet that distribute free topics for WordPress, among these themes, a certain number of them do not contain sliders (such topics are quite “ancient” in age), a certain number of themes contain sliders and depend directly on the messages published on the blog or website (the themes are new, but are already beginning to become outdated) , and there are so-called premium themes whose sliders are relatively constant and do not depend on incoming blog posts (the themes are quite new and modern).

In this publication, I will describe in detail the process of creating and setting up sliders in topics where they depend directly on the published material in the site or blog posts and their images.

I’ll say right away that I don’t really like these topics, and I’ve been trying to avoid them lately. But this is purely my opinion, and I will not impose it on anyone.

And so... A slider is a changing picture in a certain part of a website or blog (most often somewhere in the upper part or header), which can have a title and a preview with an active link to the published message (news). In our example, the slider looks like this.

Its main feature and distinctive feature is that it depends on the content of the text and the presence of a thumbnail image in messages (publications) classified under a certain category. The disadvantage of such a slider and the theme in general is that if all the publications of the selected category, or at least some of the last five published ones, do not contain thumbnails, then the slider will not work.

How to configure the operation of such a slider? To do this, we must go to the admin panel of our site (See publication). In the left menu of the admin panel, select the section “ Appearance" and in the submenu that drops down from this option, select the subsection " Setting up the TopGame theme"(This is for our example, but in your case, see the name of the theme that you have installed).

After left-clicking on the subsection name " Setting up the TopGame theme", a settings sheet for this theme opens in front of us. We are interested in the section “ Section for slideshow", it looks something like this (to enlarge the image, left-click on it):

In the top line, using the arrow and right mouse button, select one of the categories on your blog from the latest posts of which you would like to broadcast slides. In our example, the category “ Online Games", which, as we see, contains five posts (publications). Don't forget to right-click on the " Save changes" in the lower left corner of the theme settings sheet. We've completed the first part of setting up the slider!

Next, we’ll look at how the slide for the slider is formed directly when a message is published in this category of our choice. For example, I will publish a new message " Economic browser mmorpg - Anno Online", which I will refer to the heading " Online Games" by checking the category section in the right menu of the editor.

Next, we need to find an image somewhere for the slider with dimensions of at least 610 by 320 pixels (the optimal slide size in our example, in yours there will be other parameters). If the image is smaller, the slider will work ugly with black fields compensating for the missing size of the image. I do not recommend choosing an image that is too large in size, since only a fragment of it will be used as a slide.

In the right menu of the editor at the very bottom, find the section “ Post thumbnail" and click on the option " Set thumbnail» with the left mouse button, after which the usual image loader opens, through which you load the picture (image) we have chosen for the slide.

While loading the image, copy the image address, it will look like this http://site.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/anno.png, Where site.com– Your website, and anno.png– the name of the image you uploaded.

After successfully loading the thumbnail, its preview will be displayed in the window of the “ Post thumbnail" For example, like this in our case.

In the upper right part of the editor, open the option “ Screen settings».

In the form that opens, put a checkmark in the box “ Custom fields"(in some cases it is already set by default, if so, then make sure of it).

After this, a form for setting up custom fields will open at the bottom of the editor.

Of all the other things that have opened, Wamiya and I will only be interested in the option “ Add a new field:»

Where in the section " Name» we select the selector featured or if it is not there, then through the option “ Enter new» We write it manually (this is necessary for the style sheet). In the column " Meaning» paste the image address copied earlier, which will be used as a slider.

After these manipulations, we publish our message as a whole. As you can see, in our example the slide was added successfully and the slider works fine.

That's basically it! I hope I have outlined the process of creating a slider in detail and not too abstrusely, and most importantly, it is understandable for novice webmasters. If you have any questions, write in the comments, I will try to answer!

Finding a good slider for WordPress is not an easy task. The latest data says that there are 690 slider plugins for WordPress. Who has that much time to learn every plugin?

To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, here is a review and rating of the 10 most popular free slideshow plugins selected from this list. These image sliders have been updated fairly recently and have all received feedback from WordPress users.

What slideshow plugin are you using? Tell us in the comments below.

Meta Slider - slider for WordPress

Meta Slider is by far the most popular WordPress slider with over 2 million downloads.
It has four jQuery sliders - Nivo Slider (responsive, 16 transition effects, four themes), Coin Slider (four transition effects), Flex Slider 2 (responsive, two transition effects, carousel mode), Responsive Slides (responsive, fade effect only) .
Creating a new slideshow is easy - add an image, select the slider you want to use, and the plugin will spit out a shortcode that you can add anywhere on your site.
There is also a pro version of this plugin if you want to pay money for additional features.

Easing Slider

With almost 650,000 downloads, Easing Slider Lite– the second most popular slider plugin.

This lightweight plugin allows you to set the size and duration of your slider and includes the ability to make your slideshow interactive. Has two transition effects, a fade effect. As with many other sliders, you must use a shortcode to add your slider to a post or page.
You can only create one slideshow with this plugin, so if you want to have more on your site, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Smooth Slider

Smooth Slider Creates slideshows for content and images with custom backgrounds and spacing between slides that can be placed anywhere on your site.
The plugin's features include responsive design and six transition effects. It also supports custom slider, category and latest post sliders, includes template tags, shortcode and widget.
The latest version of this plugin does not always work correctly; when configured, it may disrupt the operation of the site. Judging by the Smooth Slider support page, many users have had problems with this plugin.

WOW Slider

Wow Slider It is unusual in that to create a slide show you need to download a separate program, the WOWSlider wizard. Once you have selected the images for your slideshow, you can then upload them to the plugin. You will need to copy and paste the shortcode to add the slider anywhere on your site.
The plugin's website includes some pretty comprehensive documentation to help you if you run into any problems.

vSlider Multi Image Slider for WordPress

vSlider allows you to display an unlimited number of image sliders on your site, although how many sliders are “too many”?
You can embed sliders on your site using a shortcode, a custom widget, or using it as a feature in your theme.
The plugin has a helpful FAQ and video tutorial that will explain you how to set up your first slider. If you have any problems, then the forum is also available for you.

SlideDeck 2 Lite Responsive Content Slider

SlideDeck is a popular and versatile plugin that has advanced functionality compared to previous plugins.
This Lite version does not include the full set of 14 content sources such as Facebook, NexGEN and Gallery that are available in the Premium version.
But still, the Lite version will allow you to quickly create slideshows from any content, such as images, recordings and videos.

EasyRotator for WordPress – Slider Plugin

EasyRotator promises that users will get “beautiful, interactive photo rotators and sliders for their WordPress site in seconds,” but in reality it requires some setup. First you'll have to install Flash software to create your slides - or rotators - on your PC, which can be annoying. You can then create a new rotator in the page or post editor. You can also use the shortcode to embed a rotator on your site or add a rotator to your theme using the appropriate function.
After all the troubles of installing the Flash program, you may find that it won't work when you try to set up the main slider from the post editor. A little research showed that this plugin does not work with Safari/Chrome.

Responsive WordPress Slider – Soliloquy Lite

Soliloquy is one of the most famous sliders, and for good reason - it's easy to install, you don't need to download a Flash program to create and load sliders or mess around with settings. It just works.
Once you've added your images, choose a slider size, speed, and click Publish. After this, you need to copy the resulting shortcode to any page or post where you want to install the slider.
Although this is a Lite version, it still has enough features to give it a try.

Cyclone Slider 2

Cyclone Slider 2 takes sliders back to basics. It offers easy installation, displays a simple image slider, and includes features such as delays, sizes, and hover pause.
The plugin supports images, YouTube, Vimeo, custom HTML and featured sliders. You can drag your slides to change their order, the sliders are interactive.
This plugin also has a pro version.

Responsive Slider

Responsive Slider is a very simple slideshow plugin that requires some configuration, but this makes it easy to use.
Adding new slides is easy and you can place them anywhere on your site with a shortcode or inside your theme using the appropriate function.
The settings allow you to change the width and height of the slider, add a transition effect, delay, animation duration and automatic start.
This plugin is designed for only one slider, so if you want to install multiple sliders on your site, you will have to use another plugin.

Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 is perhaps the best slider for WordPress. A very powerful plugin that has a huge set of tools for creating slideshows that you can use at your discretion, depending on the situation. There is a large database of ready-made sliders, beautiful transition effects. You can create entire landing pages using just sliders, but this is already in the Smart Slider 3 Pro version. But when you encounter this plugin for the first time, you will most likely have difficulties working with it. Since it is very easy to get confused in a large number of tabs with settings.

The most popular and best slider
And there are two winners: Meta Slider And Smart Slider 3.

Meta Slider is not only the most downloaded slider plugin, but it also received the highest rating from users.
It's easy to use, has a good balance of features and functionality - and it's all free.

vSlider Multi Image Slider,SlideDeck 2 Lite And Soliloquy Lite– also great slider plugins if your site is overloaded with images and you want to make a lot of sliders. These three themes are aimed at professionals to attract customers - have more sales - with free products.

If you just want a very simple slider without all the bells and whistles, then the Cyclone Slider 2 is definitely for you. It's a great slider that's easy to customize and not burdened by countless settings and options.

But if later you need a slider with more functionality and the ability to place several sliders on your site, you cannot go past Meta Slider.

Finding a good slider for WordPress is not an easy task. The latest data says that there are 690 slider plugins for WordPress. Who has that much time to learn every plugin?

To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, here is a review and rating of the 10 most popular free slideshow plugins selected from this list. These image sliders have been updated fairly recently and have all received feedback from WordPress users.

What slideshow plugin are you using? Tell us in the comments below.

Meta Slider - slider for WordPress

Meta Slider is by far the most popular WordPress slider with over 2 million downloads.
It has four jQuery sliders - Nivo Slider (responsive, 16 transition effects, four themes), Coin Slider (four transition effects), Flex Slider 2 (responsive, two transition effects, carousel mode), Responsive Slides (responsive, fade effect only) .
Creating a new slideshow is easy - add an image, select the slider you want to use, and the plugin will spit out a shortcode that you can add anywhere on your site.
There is also a pro version of this plugin if you want to pay money for additional features.

Easing Slider

With almost 650,000 downloads, Easing Slider Lite– the second most popular slider plugin.

This lightweight plugin allows you to set the size and duration of your slider and includes the ability to make your slideshow interactive. Has two transition effects, a fade effect. As with many other sliders, you must use a shortcode to add your slider to a post or page.
You can only create one slideshow with this plugin, so if you want to have more on your site, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Smooth Slider

Smooth Slider Creates slideshows for content and images with custom backgrounds and spacing between slides that can be placed anywhere on your site.
The plugin's features include responsive design and six transition effects. It also supports custom slider, category and latest post sliders, includes template tags, shortcode and widget.
The latest version of this plugin does not always work correctly; when configured, it may disrupt the operation of the site. Judging by the Smooth Slider support page, many users have had problems with this plugin.

WOW Slider

Wow Slider It is unusual in that to create a slide show you need to download a separate program, the WOWSlider wizard. Once you have selected the images for your slideshow, you can then upload them to the plugin. You will need to copy and paste the shortcode to add the slider anywhere on your site.
The plugin's website includes some pretty comprehensive documentation to help you if you run into any problems.

vSlider Multi Image Slider for WordPress

vSlider allows you to display an unlimited number of image sliders on your site, although how many sliders are “too many”?
You can embed sliders on your site using a shortcode, a custom widget, or using it as a feature in your theme.
The plugin has a helpful FAQ and video tutorial that will explain you how to set up your first slider. If you have any problems, then the forum is also available for you.

SlideDeck 2 Lite Responsive Content Slider

SlideDeck is a popular and versatile plugin that has advanced functionality compared to previous plugins.
This Lite version does not include the full set of 14 content sources such as Facebook, NexGEN and Gallery that are available in the Premium version.
But still, the Lite version will allow you to quickly create slideshows from any content, such as images, recordings and videos.

EasyRotator for WordPress – Slider Plugin

EasyRotator promises that users will get “beautiful, interactive photo rotators and sliders for their WordPress site in seconds,” but in reality it requires some setup. First you'll have to install Flash software to create your slides - or rotators - on your PC, which can be annoying. You can then create a new rotator in the page or post editor. You can also use the shortcode to embed a rotator on your site or add a rotator to your theme using the appropriate function.
After all the troubles of installing the Flash program, you may find that it won't work when you try to set up the main slider from the post editor. A little research showed that this plugin does not work with Safari/Chrome.

Responsive WordPress Slider – Soliloquy Lite

Soliloquy is one of the most famous sliders, and for good reason - it's easy to install, you don't need to download a Flash program to create and load sliders or mess around with settings. It just works.
Once you've added your images, choose a slider size, speed, and click Publish. After this, you need to copy the resulting shortcode to any page or post where you want to install the slider.
Although this is a Lite version, it still has enough features to give it a try.

Cyclone Slider 2

Cyclone Slider 2 takes sliders back to basics. It offers easy installation, displays a simple image slider, and includes features such as delays, sizes, and hover pause.
The plugin supports images, YouTube, Vimeo, custom HTML and featured sliders. You can drag your slides to change their order, the sliders are interactive.
This plugin also has a pro version.

Responsive Slider

Responsive Slider is a very simple slideshow plugin that requires some configuration, but this makes it easy to use.
Adding new slides is easy and you can place them anywhere on your site with a shortcode or inside your theme using the appropriate function.
The settings allow you to change the width and height of the slider, add a transition effect, delay, animation duration and automatic start.
This plugin is designed for only one slider, so if you want to install multiple sliders on your site, you will have to use another plugin.

The most popular and best slider
And the winner: Meta Slider.

Meta Slider is not only the most downloaded slider plugin, but it also received the highest rating from users.
It's easy to use, has a good balance of features and functionality - and it's all free.

vSlider Multi Image Slider,SlideDeck 2 Lite And Soliloquy Lite– also great slider plugins if your site is overloaded with images and you want to make a lot of sliders. These three themes are aimed at professionals to attract customers - have more sales - with free products.

If you just want a very simple slider without all the bells and whistles, then the Cyclone Slider 2 is definitely for you. It's a great slider that's easy to customize and not burdened by countless settings and options.

But if later you need a slider with more functionality and the ability to place several sliders on your site, you cannot go past Meta Slider.