Sidebars are reusable panels of supplementary content that appear alongside your main page or blog post content. They give visitors quick access to related links, categories, recent posts, and calls-to-action without requiring them to leave the current page. This persistent navigation is especially valuable for blog layouts and knowledge base articles, keeping readers engaged and guiding them naturally to their next destination.

The Sidebars List

Giant Context website sidebars view showing the table of existing sidebars, search field, and Name column.

Centralized Sidebar Management

Access all your reusable sidebar panels from a single dashboard. Quickly locate specific sidebars using the search field and organize them by their internal name to keep your site's supplementary content structured.

Permanent Deletion

Deleting a sidebar is a permanent action. A confirmation dialog will always prompt you to verify your choice before any content is removed.

Creating a New Sidebar

The sidebar editor

Designing your sidebar is a seamless experience because it uses the exact same block-based Visual Builder that powers your pages, headers, and footers. You have full creative control—simply add sections and drop in blocks to construct the perfect supplementary layout.

Giant Context visual builder interface showing the sidebar design view with the top toolbar, central canvas, block panel, and layers panel.

Designing Sidebars in the Visual Builder

The visual builder gives you complete control over your sidebar's layout and content. The top toolbar provides quick access to device breakpoints, a quick view toggle to preview your final design, and locale switchers for multi-language content. Build your layout using the left block panel, manage your structure in the bottom-left layers panel, and see your changes instantly on the central live canvas.

Design for scanning

Visitors typically glance at sidebars rather than reading them top to bottom. Keep your supplementary content focused and highly scannable to ensure quick access to related links and calls-to-action.

How sidebars connect to your pages

Sidebars don't appear on your pages automatically. Instead, they are attached through templates, which control the overall layout and structure of your content. Here is how it works:

Precision Control for Sidebar Layouts

Embed reusable panels alongside your main content to give visitors quick access to related links, categories, and calls-to-action. The visual builder lets you instantly toggle the sidebar's position between left and right, while custom width settings ensure your layout remains perfectly balanced.

Sidebar settings

Manage Sidebar Settings

Access the settings dialog to rename your sidebar, copy its unique ID, and track its creation and update history directly within the visual builder.

Tips for Effective Sidebars

Frequently Asked Questions

On smaller screens, sidebars automatically stack below the main content to ensure readability. Make sure your sidebar content makes sense when viewed after the main article.

You can adjust the sidebar width in your template settings. A smaller column width gives the sidebar less space and leaves more room for the main content.

Yes, you can create multiple sidebars for different purposes. Just assign a different sidebar to each template in the Website > Templates section.

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Website Sidebars