front page widget areas

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  kirstenae · Member · Oct 25, 2017 at 12:05 am

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  Hello,

  I have the ‘Sela’ theme which features 3 static front page widgets all in a row – https://wordpress.com/theme/sela. I want to create this look on my own website but when I go into Customize>Widgets, I don’t have the 3 options for ‘First front page widget area, Second, Third’. I’ve logged in to the admin dashboard and I can see them there, but I can’t edit them or do anything. Can someone help me access these and set them up?

  Thank you!
  Kirsten

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  staff-eleanor · Staff · Oct 25, 2017 at 12:53 am

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  Hello Kirsten!

  The Sela theme does offer the additional three widgets you’ve mentioned. But, these only work if you have your home page’s page attribute set to “Front Page”.

  To make that change go to your list of pages in the dashboard: https://wordpress.com/pages

  Click on the home page title to open the page editor.
  Under ‘Page Settings’, select ‘Page Attributes’. You’ll find the drop-down menu for the ‘Page Template’ there. Change your template to ‘Front Page’. Click ‘Update’ to save your changes.

  Next go to your ‘Customizer’: https://wordpress.com/customize
  Click on ‘Static Front Page’ towards the bottom of the menu.

  Where it says, ‘Front page displays’ choose ‘A static page’.
  Then, select which page you want to be the ‘Front page’, and ‘Posts page’. Click ‘Save & Publish’ to save your changes.

  In the Customizer select ‘Widgets’. At this point you should see the the Main Sidebar and three Footer Widget Areas along with the three new Front Page Widget Areas.

  You will find detailed instructions to set up the front-page widget areas on the Sela theme page here: https://wordpress.com/theme/sela

  Let us know if this has pointed you in the right direction or if you need further assistance. Thank you!