Nemus Slider is a premium WordPress plugin for adding slideshows to your website. The plugin is available from Code Canyon and has been developed by Peter Viszt for end-users and theme developers. The slider can display a range of content including images, videos and posts and claims to feature a beautiful user interface that is very simple to use.
Features and Usage
The process for creating a new slideshow is very intuitive. Once the plugin has been installed and activated, a menu item called ‘Sliders’ is added to the WordPress admin side menu. From here any existing sliders can be viewed or new ones added.
Clicking on ‘Add New’ brings up the Add New Slider page which covers the step-by-step process for adding a new slideshow for use on a WordPress site. The steps are all very simple and anyone who has used WordPress at all should find them very easy to follow.
Adding Images
To get started, enter a name for the slider, and then upload an image for each slide. Nemus Slider uses the familiar Insert Media functionality of WordPress to manage uploads and the insertions of images. This means it is possible to simply drag and drop any files to be used in the slideshow into the Insert Media window. Alternatively, files can be selected from those that have already been uploaded and used in other posts. Files can also be used by entering their address into the insert an image from a URL field.
Adding Videos
Nemus Slider can also display videos by clicking on the ‘or video’ link when adding a new slide. By doing so the opportunity to enter a link to a YouTube or Vimeo link is provided. The plugin will automatically download the video thumbnail or it is possible to provide an alternative image for use in the slider.
Adding Captions
Once a slide has been created a caption can be added. The caption field accepts text, HTML and shortcodes allowing the text to be formatted and the ability to add other elements to it such as links.
The position of the caption can also be set for each slide in the show by simply clicking on a nine-point grid icon. When the position is chosen, the default appearance of the caption is 40% wide with a slightly opaque background. However, if no position for the caption is chosen, the caption area is 100% wide and 100% high, taking up the whole slide space and creating more space for additional content as required.
The captions can be set to slide in from five directions and each caption for individual images or videos can slide in from a different direction. Alternatively, the sliding action can be turned off.
The image can also be turned into a link by entering a URL. The target of the link can be set to either the current window or a new window. As the captions accept HTML, links can be placed in the caption instead or as well.
After adding one slide, that slide can then be duplicated, creating a copy which can then be edited to save time compared to creating a new slide from scratch.
Creating an Automated Slider
As well as adding individual slides to a slider, there is the option to create an automated slider. This feature will use the images from a range of sources on a WordPress site including: posts, pages and media.
Images can be sourced from all categories or from just one and they can be ordered by few different attributes. These automated sliders can be inserted alongside manually added slides.
Post Sliders
It is also possible to use the automated slider creator to make a post slider. Posts to be used in the slider can be selected by their category or all posts can be used. The featured image for each post will be shown in the slideshow and clicking on an image takes the user to that post. If there was a way to select individual posts, using their post ID it would make this feature even more powerful.
Slider Options
Once the images or videos have been added to the slider, the slider settings can be edited for further customization of how it will look and operate. The available options at this point are as follows:
- Autoplay: decide whether the image slider will run through automatically or not and if so, set a delay between each slide.
- Auto Height: a fixed height can be entered or Nemus Slider can be tasked with automatically setting the height of the slider based on the height of each image used in the slider. If auto height is selected, the slide show container which change height for each image.
- Inside Controls: checking this option places the controls for the slider inside the slideshow. This is useful when there is not the available space either side of the slider for outside buttons. The color of the controls can also be set using a color-picker.
The slider can then be previewed and when ready, published for use on a WordPress site. The sliders can be added to pages and posts using a shortcode, or by using PHP for use in theme templates and there is also a widget for display in sidebars.
A nice feature of this plugin is that once installed, a button is added to the post editor which allows easy insertion of sliders using a drop down menu, removing the need to remember the shortcode IDs for specific videos.
Changing the Appearance Further
As the default skin of Nemus Slider has been developed using CSS3 it can be changed by overwriting the included CSS. By creating a nemus-slider.css file inside the current WordPress theme folder the new styles will be applied.
For Developers
Although Nemus Slider is suitable for end users who want to add a slideshow to their WordPress site. It has also been designed for developers who would like to add this functionality to their themes. From the available filters, developers can:
- Add an array containing the file names of all the images to be used in a particular slider.
- Insert a slider using its ID for displaying an existing slider.
- The slider options can also be set in the code for each slider ID including the size and the auto play status.
- The caption text and any links can also be coded instead of added through the WordPress dashboard.
Pricing
The Nemus Slider is available from Code Canyon for $14 (regular license) which represents great value. It is a new plugin and the developer has stated their intention to incorporate suggestions for enhancements where possible so it will be an exciting one to watch and see how it develops overtime.
Support and Documentation
The Nemus Slider plugin ships with a support document which covers everything that is needed to know in order to create a slider. There is also a page of example sliders on the developer’s website to showcase what can be achieved and there is also a YouTube video documenting the process for creating a slider.
For any problems that might arise, the developer can be contacted directly via email and was found to respond promptly to queries.
Final Conclusion and Recommendations
This is a really easy to implement slider for WordPress that has a number of great features. Nemus Slider is ideal for a number of purposes from creating large homepage sliders, smaller image sliders in posts and also sidebar slideshows. The sliders created are also responsive so they will have no problem displaying on smaller screens such as those found on smartphones and tablets.
The sliding captions, the choice between autoplay and user controlled playback as well as being able to use HTML in the captions gives the user plenty of opportunities for getting the most out of this plugin and setup it up as they desire. Being able to customize the colors used also allows for the slider controls to be matched to the theme colors of a site.
It would be nice if the width of the sliders could be easily set, as can be done with the height. This would then enable them to be inserted into posts with text wrapped around the slider, making them ideal for in-content galleries and product pages on ecommerce sites. At the moment, the sliders fill the available space, in terms of width, or extend as far wide as the width of the images used in the slider. Also when adding a slideshow using PHP, as a developer might, it is possible to change the animation from slide (animation-slide) to fade (animation-fade), however this options doesn’t appear to be available to those creating sliders through the WordPress admin interface and only the slide transition is available.
When it comes to creating a slider, the interface is very easy to use and as they can be created on one page, keeping track of what has been added to a slider is a very simple proposition. Thanks to the straightforward process of creating a slider, even the least experienced WordPress users should be able to create an attractive image slider in a matter of minutes.
Overall this is a great plugin for creating image, video and post sliders on a WordPress site. The intuitive interface for creating the sliders makes this a plugin that is easy to recommend.
To find out more about this plugin visit the Nemus Slider page on Code Canyon.
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