Meta Slider WordPress Plugin How To

Slideshows are a great way to display some of your best images, content or grouped images to the visitors. While there are lots of slideshow plugins for WordPress, most of them are complicated and come with lots of options, which becomes very confusing for the beginners.

In this post, I will introduce you to a simple, but powerful WordPress plugin for creating awesome slideshows. I am talking about Meta Slider. Let’s see how it can help you.

Installing the Plugin

First of all, download and install Meta Slider in your website. Once you activate the plugin, it will create a new menu item titled ‘Meta Slider’ in the dashboard.

Creating a New Slideshow

Go to Meta Slider > Meta Slider to create a new slideshow. Click the ‘+’ button on that page. At this point, you will be taken to a page like the following:

Click ‘Add Slide’ to add images. You can add as many images as you want. Each image will have separate fields for a caption and a custom URL. Check the ‘New Window’ box to open the URL in a new window. In the ‘SEO’ tab, you will find fields for the title and alt tags for the image. And the ‘Crop’ tab lets you choose the crop position.

Images could be rearranged by dragging and dropping. You can remove any image by hovering over the image and clicking the recycle icon.

Customizing the Slideshow

Once you have added the images, now it’s time to customize the slideshow. You will find all the customization options on the right side. At the top, you will find two buttons – ‘Save & Preview’ and ‘Save’. The first one will save and show a preview of the slideshow, and the second one will just save the slideshow.

Below, you can choose which slider style you want to use. You have four options to choose from – Flex Slider, Responsive Slides, Nivo Slider, and Coin Slider. Then, you can provide a custom width and height for your slideshow.

The ‘effect’ drop-down list lets you choose the animation effect between the slides. The ‘theme’ option is available only for the Nivo Slider. Then, you can choose to display the arrow signs and whether the navigation dots will be shown or not.

After making all the changes, click ‘Save’. Copy the shortcode for the slider from the ‘Usage’ section.

Displaying the Slideshow

It is possible to display the slideshow in any post or page. There are two ways to display the slideshows – you can use the shortcode or use the slideshow button.

If you want to use the shortcode, you have to copy the slideshow shortcode from the ‘Usage’ section of the slideshow. Then, paste the shortcode in the page or post body and click ‘Publish’.

Alternatively, you can also add a slideshow by clicking the ‘Add Slider’ button from the post editor.

Clicking the button will open a pop-up window. Choose your desired slideshow from the drop-down list and click ‘Insert Slideshow’. This will put the slideshow shortcode in the post body.

If you publish your post/page now, you should be able to view your slideshow in place.

Final Words

So, that’s how you use the Meta Slider plugin to create beautiful slideshows for your WordPress site. The plugin does not try to confuse the users with lots of advanced, complicated user interface. Rather, you can easily get through the beginner-friendly options.

However, if you are still confused about anything, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I will try my best to help you.