Do you need to add a scrolling news ticker to your WordPress site?
You’ll often see news tickers used by television networks to highlight breaking news. You can add a news ticker to your website to highlight special deals or popular posts.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add a scrolling news ticker in WordPress.
What Is a Scrolling News Ticker?
A news ticker scrolls a single line of information continuously across the screen. They typically display current news items, sporting results, live financial and currency information, and weather information.
They are a great way to display small snippets of information that are always changing. You’ll find that a news ticker can display quite a lot of information in a limited space on your WordPress blog.
For example, you could use a news ticker to display your best performing posts, items in your store that are on sale, or any other information that you want to highlight.
Another way to display this type of information on your website is with a sticky floating footer bar.
With that being said, let’s look at how to add a scrolling news ticker to your WordPress site.
How to Add a Scrolling News Ticker in WordPress
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Ditty News Ticker plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin adds a News Ticker menu item to your WordPress admin area.
You need to navigate to News Tickers » Add New to add a news ticker. On the next screen, you will have the ability to give this particular news ticker a name, ticker text, and link.
For each ticker, you can add as many ticks as you like. These are the separate pieces of information you want to display, and each can have its own link.
If you want to add another ticker item, then press the plus + button at the top right of the current tick. A new ticker item will be added.
Once you are done adding ticker items, you should click on the Ticker Mode tab. There are three different ticker modes available: scroll, rotate, and list.
Scroll mode is the default setting because it is the most commonly used in television networks. Rotate is another good option if you want to show one ticker at a time.
The settings on the rest of the page allow you to adjust the behavior of the news ticker. You can configure scroll speed and direction, override the default ticker dimensions, and choose the spacing between each tick.
The plugin generates a shortcode as well as a PHP function for each news ticker you create. You can either add the shortcode to a post, page, sidebar widget, or you can directly insert the PHP function into your theme files.
Once you insert the ticker shortcode or PHP function, then you can visit your website to see it in action.
We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add a scrolling news ticker in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to increase your blog traffic, or check out list of the best email marketing services for small businesses.
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Lin says
I have two websites. Can I add a ticker on one site that will reflect the other site?
WPBeginner Support says
While the ticker would not transmit the information to your other site, you can certainly add the same information in the ticker.
Admin
karbhari says
How do i add the Latest News: title to the scrolling news, after header in main page it shows on my site.
Anna Sue says
Where do you enter the text for your ticker? My install doesn’t show some of the items you have in your screenshots.
Anna Sue says
I this may be the ticker I want but, as in many online videos about plugins, you talked and moved so fast I could get the instructions.
H.M.Mohiuddin says
how can i add a news ticker without using plugin
plazma says
its not dynamic.
felix says
How do i add the Latest News: title to the scrolling news, it shows on my site, but i didnt see where to add if its lastest news or latest update etc
hosam abdallah says
very good plugin but i have aquestion
i use artisteer to make my themes can you tell me where can i add php function to widget
in this or from where can i add to my themes
Abdulmumin says
Hello, Please how can I add the direct function, kindly provide the ste by step instruction in adding the direct funtction.
I added the shortcode in my about page and it worked but i added it on my home page but it didnt work…..kindly advice
WPBeginner Support says
Simply copy the Direct function as shown in the last screenshot of the article and paste in your theme’s home.php or header.php. Paste it at the location where you would like your news ticker to appear.
Admin
Sujani says
hey,
thanks for giving the instructions clearly.. i had a a question where should we put the shortcode and direct function?
do we place it in the post/page?
Thanks,
Sujani
WPBeginner Support says
shortcode for posts/pages/widgets and direct function if you want to hard code it in your theme’s template files.
Admin
Peter Johnson says
It seems a great theme, as I am not a PHP developer but I want to use this theme and integrate this theme on my wordpress blog. I just want you to describe ho can I use this theme in my Blog so my latest news can be shown on top of my menu or below my main menu like a slide shown on Television. Please I need a procedure.
Thanks
Mackenzie says
Thanks, really nice tut.