Do you want visitors to filter your Elementor gallery by category? A filter bar turns a long scroll into something people can navigate — useful the moment a portfolio covers more than one kind of work.
The Gallery Listing widget in The Plus Addons for Elementor builds the filter from categories you type against each image, and filters the gallery in place with no page reload.
To check the complete feature overview documentation of The Plus Addons for Elementor Gallery Listing widget, click here.
Requirement – This widget is a part of The Plus Addons for Elementor, make sure it’s installed & activated to enjoy all its powers.
Before You Start
- Edition: Pro — the Repeater source and the category filter is part of The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro. In the free plugin the option is visible but shows an upgrade notice instead of its settings.
- Widget to enable: Gallery Listing, switched on under ThePlus Settings > Widgets.
The filter reads categories from the Repeater source. It cannot work with the plain Normal image picker, because that stores images and nothing else. The widget’s own help text says the same thing.
Step 1: Add the widget and switch the source to Repeater
Drag the Gallery Listing widget onto the page, pick a layout in Content > Layout, then open Content > Content and set Select Option to Repeater.
Step 2: Give every image a category
Open each row and fill in Category along with the image. This is free text, not a list you pick from, so keep the spelling consistent — Nature and nature become two separate filters. One image can belong to several categories, separated by commas.
Step 3: Turn on the category filter
Open Content > Extra Options and turn on Category Wise Filter. The filter bar appears above the gallery, built from the categories you typed.
Step 4: Label and align the filter bar
All Filter Category Text sets the wording of the button that clears the filter. It defaults to All — change it to Everything or Show all work if that fits your site better.
Step 5: Style the filter
Category Filter Style and Filter Hover Style each offer four presets, and Filter Alignment sets left, centre or right. All three are in the same section, directly beneath the label field.
What It Looks Like
Settings Reference
| Setting | Where | Options | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Select Option | Content > Content | Normal, Repeater (Pro), ACF Gallery (Pro) | Normal |
| Category | Repeater row | Free text, comma-separated | Empty |
| Category Wise Filter | Content > Extra Options | Show / Hide — Repeater only | Hide |
| All Filter Category Text | Content > Extra Options | Free text | All |
| Category Filter Style | Content > Extra Options | Style 1 to 4 | Style 1 |
| Filter Hover Style | Content > Extra Options | Style 1 to 4 | Style 1 |
| Filter Alignment | Content > Extra Options | Left, Center, Right | Center |
Every filter control is on Content > Extra Options. The Style tab has a section with the same name holding different controls, which is the usual reason people cannot find these.
Limitations
- Repeater and the filter are Pro. Both show an upgrade notice in the free plugin.
- Categories are typed, not chosen. There is no dropdown and no validation, so a typo silently creates an extra filter button.
- The filter is per widget. It knows nothing about WordPress categories or tags; these labels exist only inside this gallery.
- Filtering is client-side. Every image loads with the page, so a very large gallery is heavy no matter which filter is active.
- No default category. The gallery always opens on All.
Troubleshooting
The filter bar does not appear
Three things to check, in order: Select Option is set to Repeater, Category Wise Filter is on in Content > Extra Options, and the rows actually have categories typed into them. An empty Category field produces no button.
I have duplicate or near-duplicate filter buttons
Categories are free text. Nature, nature and Nature with a trailing space are three different categories. Open each row and make them identical.
Clicking a category shows nothing
No row carries that exact category string. Check the spelling in the row against the button.
