Offer Closed
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I had a customer request for this plugin and I thought it was such a cracking idea that I just had to go get it done.And like all the better ideas, what started out as a fairly small plugin has turned into something much bigger and fuller featured and I hope you’ll have your socks blown off by this plugin just as hard as mine were.Β π
Here’s a short video overview or you can just carry on reading.
Update: The video is now out of date as we changed the interface but it’s still very representative of the plugin.
The concept is a simple one and as far as I can see it’s been poorly done up to now.
The original request was for a plugin which added a set of 3 slim tabs to the right and left of the page which stayed in place when the page was scrolled up and down, but when hovered over would slide out onto the page.
The slide out would contain the content (HTML), and it could be a video, a sign up box, or anything you like, menus, images, whatever.
That was the ORIGINAL request.
We took it all a bit farther than that.Β π
I decided that rather than just supply a content box in the admin panel where you could paste some HTML… that we’d hook it all into the WP widgetised areas system instead.
What does that mean?
It means that when you create a new tab in the admin panel (unlimited – create as many as you think will fit), it also creates a new widgetised area (sidebar) for the slide-out.
Wow…Β π
Any widgets you drop into the newly created widgetised area get inserted into the slide-out just as if it were a sidebar.
This means you can insert HTML via a text widget, a menu, a sign up box, in fact ANYTHING you have a widget for, you can now insert into the slide-out.
I hope you can see how powerful that makes this plugin.
In theory at least, you could use a theme without a sidebar on the home page and instead use slide-out tabs.
When creating this I also realised that you might not want to put all the tabs on every page, and that you might even want to put different tabs on different pages, or even none at all.
Sorted.
We used the same method that Ads Manager uses of the built in developer system in WordPress called Conditional Tags, and we bent it to our will.
If you’ve never used the Conditional Tags system, then you’re in for a real treat as it gives you total flexibility in setting up rules for things to trigger based on whereabouts on a blog you are.
Built into the Conditional Tags system are rules that allow you to choose which post(s) or page(s) you want the tabs to appear on. Or if it’s the home page. Or the categories page, or the tags page. There are a massive amount of rules and you can also use negatives of those rules too.
So you can say “not on the home page” or “not on these posts” and so on.
This means you can stack tabs in the same position on a page, but show different tabs depending on where the visitor is reading your blog.
To put that another way, you might have 2 tabs on the left that are 100 pixels down and the same height. Normally one would overlay and obscure the other, but you can set the rules to say that one tab appears on the home page and the other tab appears on every post, but not on any pages.
Is that totally COOL or what? π
I’m releasing the Slide Out Tabs plugin over this weekend starting at just $10, and I’ll drop you a line a few hours before I’m ready. It comes with personal use rights and also developer rights so you can install on client blogs. If enough people ask I’ll also consider releasing a blog flipper licence for an additional fee.
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In the meantime, I’d also like to remind you that the sale for Instant Graphics Injection ends on Monday but you can currently get this massive pack for just $10 here.
-Frank Haywood
Hey Frank.
I’ll be first (or among the first) on the buy list for this. Glad you took this and ran with it. We can always count on you to take a simple suggestion and exploit it for all it’s worth. Keep up the great work and we look forward to your next great release.
JDD
Hi James,
Lol!
Once I’d bought into the idea I couldn’t stop building on it. In fact I’m having a couple of changes done right now since I did the video.
The funny thing is I have this feeling I’m missing out on a massively useful aspect to this plugin and it’s tickling my brain without revealing itself. Yet. π
-Frank
Hi Frank.
Infinite number of tabs for widgets! I’m Interested π
And regarding tabs… the ad at the button (Where it says “Here’s an idea”). Is it a plugin of yours?
Thanks,
Diego
Hi Diego,
The widgetised areas thing IS a bit clever isn’t it? And better yet are the WordPress Conditional Tags to control the rules about where the tabs appear.
One day all plugins will be built this way. π
Yes the slide-up is one of mine and you can get it from here, still at a snip of a price while I get changes made to the affiliate script, but then it’s straight to $27.
http://plugingreat.com/slide-up-ads/
I also have to get some changes done to it soon as there have been plenty of requests for multiple slide-ups so that different ones can be shown on different pages. When we start it will probably take a couple of weeks to do, but I think we won’t start the changes for about another month.
-Frank
Thanks for the information, Frank.
Purchased “everything” π
>”multiple slide-ups so that different ones can be shown on different pages”
Yes, I agree. One more vote for these features π
These two plugins are very similar. Maybe they could be merged into one.
BTW: I also like the PSD approach A LOT (with effects, layers, text layers, backgrounds). Easy for non designer experts like me. One request: Whenever possible, please try to include graphic sets for white pages. You know, white, light and dark grey combinations, tiled backgrounds and so on. White based sites are the most easy to work with and the best, in my experience, to maximize ROI. Personally I use colours only where I want to call visitor’s attention.
All the best,
Diego
Consultor SEO, Google Adwords
Hi Diego,
Thank you.
Good point about the light white background, I’ll see what I can do about that. Slide Up Ads needs a bit of attention to allow you to choose where the slide-up shows – that shouldn’t be too hard. I also want it to be able to show different slide-ups in different places, but that will take almost a re-write so it may be a little longer before you see that.
-Frank
OK Frank. Thanks for listening.
All the best
Love this idea! Can’t wait to use it. Be nice to add a geo tag contact form to.
Hi Pol,
Yep, I don’t know why I haven’t thought of widgetising stuff like this before – it would make life a lot easier as long it’s not overdone. This seemed to be a good example of when to do it though. π
-Frank
Hi Frank
When will this be going live?
Lynley
Hi Lynley,
I’m releasing it today (Monday 28th).
I sent it back for some changes as there was one mildly irritating problem where sometimes the slide-out would pop in and out a few times before stopping. We’ve now changed it to click to open and close rather than hover, and it’s MUCH better now. My developer also made some interface changes as she decided it was getting a bit messy in the admin panel (my fault), and now it’s laid out much more sensibly.
I’ll do a replacement video for the overview now too as the old one I did on Friday is already out of date. π
Although, there are still a couple of minor changes to come but no reason to stop release.
-Frank
Have you determined the price and when you will release it? If so, how do we get it?
Thanks Frank!
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for asking – I’m releasing today (Monday 28th) at my normal $10 for early buyers but I’ll be putting the price up to $27 as soon as possible. It’s a cracking little plugin that addresses an issue I didn’t realise I had myself until I got stuck with something about a month ago and this fixes that problem for me now. (I believe generally in karma and things happening when they’re meant to.)
In case you didn’t know, all my plugins (unless customer requested) are to fill my own personal requirements first, and then I release them for everyone else second. π
This was a customer request but I immediately saw how it could be used to solve my problem too.
-Frank
I didn’t miss this, did I?
Hi Pol,
Nope, we had to make a couple of little changes here and there. π
-Frank
OK Frank – ANOTHER Winner.
This one has given me the itch to try it out NOW!
Unfortunately (As usual) I’m snowed with client work.
So I’ll just have to itch for a while.
I’ll be sending you an email shortly with an organizational money maker for Plugin Great.
Since for me Plugin Great (For Me) has reached critical mass, I’m going to have to do this for me anyway but you and your clients will be the beneficiary.
Mike C.
Hi Mike,
It’s great to have plenty of work on, but sometimes it all gets a bit too much right? Especially when you have other things you want to try out. π
I wait with bated breath for this new plugin idea, I know you have really great ones.
-Frank
Thanks Frank,
I have some idea for this so I put it together with my “Frank” collection π
Take care / Lars
Hi Lars,
Hehe. Share the idea. π
-Frank
This looks great!
The only concern/suggestions I have would be
1. To be able to control the vertical positioning. Even if the tabs stay put while the page scrolls, being able to control the distance from the top of the page could prevent conflicts with other tab things like Twitter Follow tabs and such.
I just bought a plugin that puts several social icons on a stationary tab, and I have not yet installed it to see if I can set the distance from the top, as I can with the GoToWeb2.0 Twitter Follow badge.
In other words, I would really like to be able to control that distance from the top at which these tabs display, and I’m hoping there is no conflict with the others.
2. To be able to run the text horizontally as usual but rotated so that the baseline is perpendicular to the top of the page, as in the Twitter Follow badge and some others I’ve seen, because
a. I find stacked letters, as in these tabs, harder to read at a glance.
b. The rotated text
(1) is more eyecatching (to me)
(2) would match the Twitter and other social media badges.
(3) is attractive
For whatever it’s worth
Kathleen
PS I did not mean that I would want the main text on the tab page rotated, just the text on the tab itself, the part that sticks out, that you click to open and close it—-in case that was not clear.
Hi Kathleen,
#1 β Yes it already does that. You can control tab and slide out position separately. Itβs just that in my examples Iβd positioned them at the top.
#2 β Okay, youβre the second person to ask for this so I now have to go see about getting that done. Give us a few days. π
All the best,
-Frank
And… Yep, I get it about the tab text only. π
Hi Frank!
I received an email a couple of days ago saying that there was an update to the Sliding Tabs plugin. I purchased the original one earlier this week but want to get the update.
I don’t have the link to download it and I sent an email to your support email address a couple of days ago without any answer.
Can you send me the link to get the updated version and check to see if your support email address is being monitored?
THANKS!
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
I’ve just emailed it to you.
It’s a good idea to bookmark that to pick up any updates we do. FireFox has a free synch service you can set up that will store all your bookmarks and synchronise them across your FireFox installation on different machines, and due to the nature of how it works you can also recover all your bookmarks in a disaster from their secure central synch server by entering your login ID and password.
It’s very cool and I use it myself with the PortableApps version of FireFox, and I’m gradually convincing my hires to do the same and use those words above.
All the best,
-Frank
Loved this plugin, but just upgraded to WP 3.4 and now the Slide Out Tabs no longer work. Just stays put on the page without any slideing. I had to disable it.
Any fixes coming soon?????
HELP – I loved this, but can’t put it into action until there is a fix.
THANKS!
Charlie
Hi Charlie,
Yep it’s a great plugin I agree. We’ve fixed it and you can go get the new version from your personal download page.
The reason why it’s broken and why so many other plugins and themes are broken too can be read here:-
http://www.frankhaywood.com/why-you-shouldnt-upgrade-to-wordpress-3-4/
All the best,
-Frank
Hi Frank,
I would like to buy this plugin…please…
how may I get access to it?
Thanks
Hi Jimal,
It’s currently running in a WSO here or you can get it from the main Slide Out Tabs for WordPress site. It’s the same buy link, same price for now.
All the best,
-Frank