Creating a carousel slider for your website is an effective way to showcase your content in a structured, interactive layout. The Carousel Anything widget in The Plus Addons for Elementor lets you build carousel sliders from any Elementor template, giving you complete control over what each slide contains.
This guide covers how to use The Plus Addons for Elementor Carousel Anything widget, including its template-based slides, carousel sync features, and all available style settings.
Best Used For:
- Agency and portfolio sites that need flexible slide layouts with mixed content types
- SaaS and service sites building feature showcase sliders using Elementor templates
- Interactive landing pages that sync a carousel to tabs, accordions, or process steps for guided walkthroughs
Required Setup
- Elementor FREE Plugin installed & activated.
- You need to have The Plus Addons for Elementor plugin installed and activated.
- This is a Freemium widget. To unlock the extra features, you need the PRO version of The Plus Addons for Elementor.
- Make sure the Carousel Anything widget is activated. To verify this, visit The Plus Addons → Widgets → and search for Carousel Anything and activate.
Learn via Video Tutorial:
How to Activate the Carousel Anything Widget?
Go to
- The Plus Addons → Widgets
- Search the widget name and turn on the toggle.
Key Features
- Directly use Elementor templates – You can create carousel sliders by using Elementor templates as slides.
- Unique Carousel ID – Connect your carousel with other widgets using a unique ID to create synchronized interactive layouts.
- Vertical Carousel – Make vertical carousel sliders for compact or side-panel layouts.
- Multiple Columned – Create multiple columned sections in your sliders.
- Infinite loop carousel – Make an infinite loop carousel that runs continuously without pausing.
- Multi Drag – You can allow users to drag multiple slides at once.
- Autoplay carousel – You can have your carousel autoplay without user interaction.
How to Use Carousel Anything Widget in Elementor?
Content
How to Create Elementor Carousel Slider With Elementor Templates?
If you want to create a carousel slider in Elementor, you can use Elementor templates as slides. Using templates gives you complete layout flexibility — each slide can contain any combination of images, text, buttons, or videos.
Using this method, you can create different types of carousel sliders, like slides with texts and images, and use the image thumbnails as navigation or videos in your slider.
With the Carousel Anything widget in The Plus Addons for Elementor, you can add Elementor templates to your carousel slides.
To do this, add the widget on the page and open the first slide tab or the slide tab you want to add the content to.
In the Title field, you can add a title for your item. It will not be visible on the page — it is just for your reference.
For the content, you need to use an Elementor template. Templates let you add custom layouts with images, text, videos, or any other element you have built in the Elementor editor.
First, create and save your template in the Elementor editor.
Then, from the Content Type dropdown, choose either Template or Shortcode to add your Elementor template to the slide.
With the Template option, choose your saved Elementor template from the dropdown.
With the Shortcode option, add the Elementor template shortcode in the Enter Elementor Template Shortcode field.
Both options produce the same result. Use whichever fits your workflow.
Following the same process, you can add content to other slides as well.
To add more slides to your Elementor carousel slider, click the + Add Item button and repeat the above process. If your slides are going out of the container, turn on the Overflow Hidden toggle to keep the content contained.
If you want to create specific slider types like a Testimonial slider, WooCommerce product slider, or Blog post slider, dedicated widgets handle those cases more efficiently than the Carousel Anything widget.
- Blog Post Carousel widget
- Testimonial Carousel widget
- WooCommerce Carousel widget
- InfoBox/Service Box Carousel Widget
- Image Carousel
Extra Options
How to Make Randomize Elementor Carousel Slides? (Pro)
If you want to show your carousel slides in a random order so that every time a user visits the page, they see the slides in a different sequence, you can do that with the Carousel Anything widget in The Plus Addons for Elementor.
To do this, add the widget on the page, and after you have created your slides, go to Extra Options and turn on the Slide Random Order toggle. This will show your carousel slides in a random order on each page load.
Turn on the Overflow Hidden toggle to stop content from going outside the section or overlapping with other content. Use this when slide content extends beyond the carousel boundary on smaller screen sizes.
What is Unique Carousel Remote Id Sync?
One of the unique features in The Plus Addons for Elementor is that you can interconnect its various widgets using a shared unique ID. With this option, you can connect your carousel with other widgets like an Accordion widget, Tabs widget, Infobox widget, or the Process Steps widget so they stay in sync.
How does this Work?
This unique ID feature lets you interconnect two widgets with a common ID. The ID you set on one widget must match the ID on the other widget to establish the connection.
Both widgets should have the same settings for their common properties. For example, if you are connecting the Carousel Anything widget with an Accordion widget, the number of accordion items and the number of carousel slides must match.
Once the connection is established, the carousel slide will change when you switch the accordion item.
Some of the common use cases with our Carousel Remote ID Sync:
- Carousel Anything with Carousel Remote
- Carousel Anything with Tabs & Tours
- Carousel Anything with Accordion widget
- Carousel Anything with Process Steps Widget
- Carousel Anything with Infobox widget
How to Style Carousel Anything Widget in WordPress?
To style the Carousel Anything widget, go to the Style tab. You will also find device-specific settings for each option.
Slider Mode – Choose your slider orientation: Horizontal or Vertical. Use Vertical when building a side-panel or mobile-first layout where vertical scrolling matches the user’s natural reading direction.
Slide Direction – Set the slide direction to Right to Left or Left to Right. Use Right to Left when building sites that target right-to-left language audiences.
Slide Speed – Control the transition speed between slides. Use a lower value for a faster, more energetic feel and a higher value for a slower, more deliberate transition on content-heavy slides.
Slide Animation – Add fade-in and fade-out effects to your slider. Use this when you want a softer transition between slides rather than a slide-across motion.
Animation Type – Choose the animation type for your slider transitions.
Now you’ll find various device-dependent options.
Columns – Set the number of visible slides per row. Learn more about the process. Use 3 or 4 columns for feature-comparison carousels and drop to 1 column on mobile so cards stack cleanly.
Next Previous – Set the slide movement behaviour for next/previous navigation. Choose to move one column at a time or all visible columns depending on the number of columns set in the Columns dropdown.
Slide Padding – Adjust the padding around each slide. Use this to add spacing between slides when displaying multiple columns so slide content does not touch the edges.
Draggable – Make your carousel draggable or non-draggable. Enable this on touch devices where users expect to swipe through slides.
Multi Drag – Allow users to drag multiple slides at once. Use this when your carousel has many short slides and you want users to be able to navigate quickly.
Infinite Mode (Pro) – Turn your carousel into an infinite loop slider so it cycles continuously without stopping at the last slide.
Pause On Hover (Pro) – Pause the autoplay when the user moves their mouse over the carousel. Use this to give users time to read slide content before the carousel advances.
Adaptive Height – When slides have uneven heights, this option adjusts the carousel navigation position automatically to match the tallest visible slide. Use this when your slides contain variable-length text.
Autoplay (Pro) – Set the Elementor carousel slider to advance automatically and control its interval speed.
Show Dots – Add navigation dots below the carousel and style them. Learn more about the process. Use this when your carousel has 5 or more slides and you want users to jump directly to a specific slide.
Show Arrow – Add navigation arrows for your carousel slider and style them from here.
Center Mode (Pro) – Highlight the center slide by adding padding, scale effect, or opacity. Learn more about the process here. Use this on hero sliders where you want to draw visual focus to the active slide.
On Scroll View Animation – This global extension is available for all widgets in The Plus Addons for Elementor. It adds a scroll animation as the widget enters the viewport.
Learn more about On Scroll View Animation
Advanced options remain common for all widgets. View Advanced Tab documentation.
Pro Carousel Enhancements Worth Upgrading For
Here are some of the Carousel Anything Pro features that expand what you can build with the widget.
Random Slide Order (Shuffle)
Randomizes the order of your carousel slides each time the page loads. Use this when displaying team spotlights or featured posts so each page visit shows a different arrangement without manual reordering. This feature requires Pro.
Infinite Loop Carousel Mode
Creates a continuous carousel loop that cycles through all slides without stopping at the last one. Use this for testimonial galleries or product showcases where you want uninterrupted browsing. This feature requires Pro.
Autoplay with Pause-on-Hover
Advances slides automatically at a set interval, with the option to pause when the user hovers over the carousel. Use this on desktop layouts where users need time to read slide content before it advances. Available in Pro only.
Center Mode Highlight
Enlarges and highlights the center slide with customizable padding, scale, and opacity. Use this on hero sliders or featured post carousels where you want to draw visual focus to the active slide. A Pro-only feature.
Vertical Carousel Layout
Supports vertical sliding instead of the standard horizontal layout. Use this for compact side panels, mobile-first experiences, or layouts where vertical movement matches the page flow better than horizontal. Exclusive to Pro.
Unique Carousel ID Sync (Remote Control)
Links this carousel to other widgets, such as Tabs, Accordions, Infoboxes, or Process Steps, via a shared Unique ID. Use this to build synchronized interactive layouts where clicking a tab or step item advances the carousel to the matching slide. Available in Pro only.
Why Upgrade?
By upgrading to The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro, you unlock the full carousel feature set including infinite loop, autoplay, center mode, vertical layout, and widget sync. These features let you build carousels that go beyond standard slideshows without writing custom code. For a horizontal scroll layout as an alternative to carousels, see the Horizontal Scroll Elementor Widget.
