A news ticker puts your latest headlines in a single line, so announcements and new posts stay visible without taking a whole section of the page.
The Post Ticker style of the Dynamic Smart Showcase widget from The Plus Addons for Elementor builds one from any post type on your site.
To check the complete feature overview documentation of The Plus Addons for Elementor Dynamic Smart Showcase widget, click here.
Requirement – This widget is a part of The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro, make sure it’s installed & activated to enjoy all its powers.
Before You Start
- Edition: Pro — Dynamic Smart Showcase is only in The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro. With the Pro plugin switched off the widget is not in the editor at all, and a page that already uses it shows nothing where the widget was.
- Widget to enable: Dynamic Smart Showcase, switched on under The Plus Addons > Widgets.
- You need published content: the widget queries your site. Posts, pages or a custom post type with published entries must already exist, or the widget prints Posts not found.
- Raise the post count: Maximum Posts Display in Content Source defaults to 1, so a freshly dropped widget shows a single post. Set it to the number you want, or to -1 for every matching post.
How to Create the Ticker
- Drag the Dynamic Smart Showcase widget onto your page.
- In the Layout section, set Style to Post Ticker.
- Choose your source in the Post Type dropdown — Posts, Pages, products or any custom post type.
- Open Content Source and raise Maximum Posts Display from 1 to the number of headlines you want in rotation.
- Open the Post Ticker section. Post Ticker is already on; use the toggles here to decide what shows beside each headline.
The Result
The headlines run in a single strip with a coloured label at the start and arrows at the end:
Ticker Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Post Ticker | Shows or hides the whole strip. | on |
| Label (switcher) | The coloured block at the start of the strip. | on |
| Label (text) | What that block says. | LATEST NEWS |
| Label Icon | An icon inside the label block. | none |
| Label Link | Makes the label a link, with the usual new-tab and nofollow options. | empty |
| Date | The post date beside the headline. | off |
| Author Name | The author name, linked to their archive. | off |
| Author Image | The author’s Gravatar at 32 px. | off |
| Ticker Autoplay (Extra Options) | Advances the headlines on their own. | off |
| Ticker Speed (Extra Options) | Milliseconds between headlines when autoplay is on. | 2000 |
Autoplay
Ticker Autoplay lives in Extra Options, not in the Post Ticker section. Switching it on reveals Ticker Speed, which is the pause between headlines in milliseconds — 2000 is two seconds.
Hiding Parts of the Ticker on Small Screens
Post Ticker Responsive Option has eight switches, one for each part of the strip on each breakpoint: Label, Date, Author Name and Author Image, each with a Disable in Tablet and a Disable in Mobile switch.
Each switch only appears once the matching part is switched on in the Post Ticker section.
How It Behaves
- With Style set to Post Ticker the widget renders the strip and nothing else — there is no grid of cards underneath it.
- One headline is visible at a time. The previous and next arrows at the end of the strip move through them.
- The ticker can also run above a Magazine Slider: with that style it is on by default and shares the same settings.
- Each headline links to its post, and is trimmed by Title Word Limit in Extra Options.
- The responsive switches hide the label, date, author name and author image. The ticker strip and its headlines stay visible at tablet and mobile widths.
Limitations
- The previous and next arrows cannot be switched off.
- There is no way to show more than one headline at a time.
- The responsive switches cannot hide the ticker itself. To keep it off a breakpoint, use Elementor’s own Responsive visibility settings on the widget or its container.
- Title & Description Word Break in Extra Options is hidden for this style.
- The author name is prefixed with a Font Awesome user icon, which can render blank on a page where nothing else loads Font Awesome.
Troubleshooting
Only one headline is in the rotation
Maximum Posts Display in Content Source defaults to 1. Raise it, or set it to -1 for every matching post.
The ticker does not move on its own
Switch Ticker Autoplay on in Extra Options and set Ticker Speed. Without it the ticker only moves when a visitor uses the arrows.
A grid of cards appears under the ticker
Style is set to Magazine Slider, which shows the ticker above a carousel. Set it to Post Ticker for the strip on its own.
The date or author is missing
Date, Author Name and Author Image are off by default in the Post Ticker section. Also check Post Ticker Responsive Option if they are missing only on small screens.
