Want to make the active slide stand out in your Elementor carousel? The Carousel Anything widget in The Plus Addons for Elementor lets you increase the center slide area so that the active slide appears larger than the surrounding slides, with partial previews of adjacent slides visible on either side.
What It Does
The Carousel Anything widget includes a Center Mode toggle that scales and centers the active slide, making it visually larger than the slides on either side, which stay partially visible for context. This creates a focus effect that draws attention to whichever slide is currently active.
Requirement – Center Mode is a Pro feature. The Center Mode toggle is only available with The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro; it is not present on the free Carousel Anything widget.
To check the complete feature overview documentation of The Plus Addons for Elementor Carousel Anything widget, click here.
Why It Matters
In a flat carousel, every slide looks equally important, so there’s no visual cue telling the visitor which one is “active” beyond its position. Scaling up the center slide gives that slide immediate visual priority, which matters most for testimonial carousels, portfolio showcases, or product highlights where you want the current item to read as the featured one, not just one of several equal thumbnails.
What You Get
- A Center Mode toggle inside Carousel Options
- A Center Padding slider that appears once Center Mode is on, to add space around the active slide
- A Center Slide Effects dropdown with additional opacity/scale controls depending on the effect chosen
Benefits
- Visual focus – the active slide reads as the featured item, not just one of several equal thumbnails
- Context preserved – adjacent slides stay partially visible, so visitors know there’s more to browse
- Combines with Autoplay – pairing Center Mode with Autoplay creates a continuously rotating spotlight effect
Capabilities
Center Mode lives in Carousel Options alongside the other Pro carousel modes (Autoplay, Infinite Mode). Turning it on reveals Center Padding and Center Slide Effects; the effect dropdown’s available sub-controls (opacity, scale) change depending on which effect is selected. Center Mode works together with Vertical mode and Infinite Mode for combined layouts.
How It Works
When Center Mode is active, the widget calculates which slide currently sits at the carousel’s center point and applies the chosen Center Slide Effect (scale/opacity change) to that slide only, while unaffected neighboring slides are pushed outward by the Center Padding value. As the carousel advances, the effect recalculates and re-applies to whichever slide becomes newly centered.
How to Use It
To increase the center slide size, add the Carousel Anything widget to the page. After you have created your slides, go to the Style tab and open the Carousel Options section. Turn on the Center Mode toggle. Use this when you want the active slide to appear larger and more prominent than the surrounding slides, such as in a testimonial carousel, a portfolio showcase, or a product highlight section.
Once Center Mode is on, a Center Padding slider appears. Increase this value to add more space around the center slide and make the active slide stand out from adjacent slides. From the Center Slide Effects dropdown, select an effect to apply to the center slide. Depending on the effect you choose, additional adjustable options appear below the dropdown, such as opacity or scale controls. To create a continuously playing carousel that pairs well with center mode, see How to Change Elementor Carousel Slider automatically with autoplay.
Also Read: How to Create Vertical Elementor Carousel Slider to combine Center Mode with a vertical layout.
Also Read: How to create a Carousel Infinite Loop scroll in Elementor Slider to keep a center-mode carousel cycling without a hard stop.
Use Cases
- Testimonial carousels that spotlight one review at a time while hinting at more on either side
- Portfolio showcases that want the current project to visually stand out from the rest
- Product highlight sections on WooCommerce stores featuring one product at a time in a larger frame
Limitations
- Center Mode is a Pro-only setting; the toggle is not present on the free version of the Carousel Anything widget.
- Center Slide Effects apply uniformly to whichever slide is centered – you cannot assign a different effect per individual slide.
- Very large Center Padding values combined with a narrow container can push adjacent slides fully out of view, defeating the “partial preview” effect.
Troubleshooting
- Trying to recreate a Center Mode layout on a different widget (e.g. Social Reviews) and not finding the same controls. Ticket #15880 (“Carousel Center Mode Layout for Wordpress Social Reviews”) – Center Mode is a Carousel Anything setting; other listing/review widgets that use their own carousel styling may not expose an identical Center Mode control, so check that widget’s own Style tab for an equivalent option instead.
- Center slide doesn’t visually scale even though Center Mode is on. Confirm a Center Slide Effect is actually selected from the dropdown – enabling the base Center Mode toggle alone reserves the padding/space but the visual scale/opacity change comes from the effect you pick.
- Center Mode combined with multiple columns produces an uneven layout. Center Mode is designed around a single centered slide; when Desktop Columns is set above 1, test carefully since centering behavior applies to the whole visible group rather than one column.
