AIT Announcements Bar

Your offer ended and the bar is still promising it

You put a notice at the very top: free shipping until the end of the month. The day after it closes arrives, you have other things on your mind and the notice is still there. Whoever comes in reads a promise you no longer keep, and on trying to use it discovers that nobody took it down.

Publishing a notice is the easy part; removing it is what gets forgotten. That is why, on an announcement bar, the end date is worth as much as the text. AIT Announcements Bar, by AitThemes, adds a bar at the top of every page and lets you decide in advance when it appears and when it goes away, so taking it down does not depend on your memory.

Its scope is clear: one notice across the whole site. Its features include no rules for showing it only on certain pages, no button for the visitor to close it and no click statistics.

Two ways to write the notice

• Simple type. It accepts text with basic HTML tags (links, line breaks, emphasis and bold) and a button with its own link. It uses a predefined style, and the background and button colors are set in the WordPress Customizer, under the Announcements Bar tab.
• Advanced type. It accepts your own HTML and CSS, with full control over content and design.

If you only need a sentence and a button, the simple type is enough. The advanced one makes sense when the notice has to follow your brand design in detail, and it requires someone who can write that code.

The whole bar can also work as a link: anyone who clicks it reaches the address you set.

The dates you set decide when it shows

Everything depends on the Enable checkbox and the Date From and Date To fields:

• With both dates, the bar shows only within that range.
• With only a start date, it shows from that day onward.
• With only an end date, it shows until that day and then turns itself off.
• With no dates, it shows as long as the Enable checkbox is checked.

The third case is the one that solves the forgetting: you put the notice up today and set the last day of the promotion. The fourth is useful for permanent messages, and it is also the one most likely to go stale if the content expires.

Preparing the notice with nobody watching

The Customizer includes the Show preview of Announcement Bar checkbox. With it checked, the bar shows only there, even if it is hidden on the public side of the site. And what you see in that view does not depend on the configured dates.

In practice, you can review the text and colors of a campaign that has not started yet, leave it ready and enable it when the time comes. Nobody will see the half-written notice.

Setting it up in five steps

Before scheduling anything, check the WordPress timezone, because the dates depend on it to work correctly.

1. Install the plugin on a copy of the site and check how the bar fits with your theme.
2. Open the WordPress General settings and confirm the timezone.
3. Choose the simple or advanced type and write the notice.
4. Adjust the colors and look at the preview in the Customizer.
5. Check Enable, set Date From and Date To, and review the site at the start time.

When the notice needs a countdown or a header of its own

If what must be seen is the time left, HurryTimer Pro creates countdowns, and its sticky announcement bar can sit at the top or bottom of the screen, on all pages or the ones you choose.

If you want a bar that stays with the reader while scrolling, with different content from your header, Sticky Header on Scroll adds one of its own without modifying the theme.

To decide whether this bar is enough

Does the bar turn itself off when the promotion ends?

Yes, if you set Date To: it shows until that date and then turns off automatically. Check the WordPress timezone first.

Can I add a button without writing code?

Yes. The simple type includes a button with its own link, and its colors are changed in the Customizer.

Can I see how it looks before publishing it?

Yes. The preview checkbox shows it only in the Customizer, even while it stays hidden from visitors.