The Testimonial widget from The Plus Addons for Elementor lists customer quotes as a grid, a masonry grid or a carousel. The quotes can come from a custom post type or from a repeater you fill in inside the widget.
This page walks through every section of the widget panel and says which parts need the Pro plugin.
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: the Testimonial widget is in the free plugin. Style-3 and the extras listed below need The Plus Addons for Elementor Pro.
- Widget to enable: Testimonial, switched on under The Plus Addons > Widgets. Its card is badged FREEMIUM.
- If you use the Post Type source: the testimonial custom post type has to be switched on first, under The Plus Addons > Extra Options > Listing > Testimonial. Until then there are no testimonials to list.
Turn the widget on
- Go to The Plus Addons > Widgets in the WordPress dashboard.
- Search for Testimonial.
- Switch the toggle on. The widget then appears in the Elementor panel under the Plus Listing category.
Layout
In Pro the first section of the Content tab is called Layout. In the free plugin the same section is called Content Layout. Everything inside it is the same.
- Import Presets loads a ready-made testimonial design you can then edit.
- Style picks the card design: Style-1, Style-2, Style-3 and Style-4. Style-3 is Pro; in the free plugin it is listed as Style-3 (PRO) and choosing it replaces the listing with the message This Style Premium Version.
- Style Layout appears only for Style-3 and offers Style 1 or Style 2. Pro only.
- Content Alignment appears only for Style-4 and is Left or Right.
- Layout picks Grid, Masonry or Carousel. The default is Carousel.
- Select Source is either Post Type (the default, which reads the testimonial custom post type) or Repeater (rows you fill in inside the widget).
- With Repeater selected, a Manage Testimonials repeater appears. Each row has Testimonial Content, Testimonial Title, Author Name, Author Designation, Show Author Image, Author Image and Company Logo. The Company Logo only shows on Style-4.
Columns Manage
This section is hidden when the Layout is Carousel, because a carousel takes its column count from Style > Carousel Options instead.
Desktop Column, Tablet Column and Mobile Column set how many cards sit side by side. The labels are inverted against the stored value, so read the label: the defaults are Column 4 on desktop, Column 3 on tablet and Column 2 on mobile – four, three and two cards per row.
Columns Gap/Space Between defaults to 15 px on all four sides. It is applied as padding inside each card’s cell, so the visible gap between two cards is twice the value you set.
Content Source
This section is hidden when Select Source is Repeater.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Select Category | Limits the listing to one or more testimonial categories. Leave it empty to list every testimonial. | empty |
| Maximum Posts Display | How many testimonials to list (1-200). | 8 |
| Offset Posts | Skips this many testimonials from the start of the list (0-50). | empty |
| Order By | None, ID, Author, Title, Name (slug), Date, Modified, Random, Comment Count or Default Menu Order. | Date |
| Order | Descending or Ascending. | Descending |
Extra Option
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Title Tag | HTML tag used for the testimonial title: H1 to H6, div or p, plus span in Pro. | H3 |
| Display Image Size | Show reveals Image Resolution and Image Dimension, which are Pro only. The free plugin shows an upgrade notice instead. | Hide |
| Display Author Image | Hide removes the author picture from every card. | Show |
| Content Limit By | Default, Height or Text Limit. Shown only for the Carousel layout – and in the free plugin only when the source is Repeater. | Default |
| Content Height(px) | Shown for Grid, and for Carousel when Content Limit By is Height (1-500). | empty |
| Title Height(px) | Fixes the height of the testimonial title, with the same conditions as Content Height (1-500). | empty |
| Content Scroll | On Hover keeps the scrollbar invisible until the card is hovered; Visible keeps it on screen. | On Hover |
| Excerpt Limit | Default, By Letters or By Words. Repeater source only, on Masonry or on Carousel with Content Limit By set to Text Limit. | Default |
| Title Limit | Default, By Letters or By Words. Carousel + Repeater + Text Limit only. | Default |
| Maximum Letters/Words | The cut-off used by Excerpt Limit and Title Limit (0-1000). | 30 |
| Read More / Read Less | The two labels on the expand link that the text limits add. | Read More / Read Less |
Style tab
- Title – typography and colour of the author name.
- Extra Title – typography and colour of the testimonial title.
- Designation – typography and colour of the author’s designation.
- Excerpt/Content – typography and colour of the testimonial text.
- Content Background – padding, background, border and shadow of each card.
- Read More/Less – typography and colour of the expand link.
- Scroll Bar – the scrollbar shown when Content Height or Title Height is set.
- Featured Image – size, border radius and shadow of the author image. The defaults are 75 px wide by 90 px tall.
- Carousel Options – every carousel control; shown only for the Carousel layout.
- Pro: Post Not Found Options – styles the Posts not found message. Post Type source only.
- Extra Options – the Messy Columns toggle, which offsets individual columns up or down. The offsets themselves are Pro.
- On Scroll View Animation – the shared animation extension.
Carousel Options
These controls appear under Style > Carousel Options when the Layout is Carousel. They are split across Desktop, Tablet and Mobile tabs.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Unique Carousel ID | An id you can point the Carousel Remote widget at. Pro. | empty |
| Slider Mode | Horizontal or Vertical. Pro – the free plugin never sends this to the slider. | Horizontal |
| Slide Direction | Left To Right or Right To Left. | Left To Right |
| Slide Speed | Transition time in milliseconds. | 1500 |
| Desktop Columns / Tablet Columns / Mobile Columns | Slides visible at once. | Pro 3 / 3 / 2, free 1 / 1 / 1 |
| Next Previous | Move one slide or two per step. Pro – the free plugin always moves one. | 1 |
| Slide Padding | Padding inside each slide. | empty |
| Draggable | Lets visitors drag the carousel. | Yes |
| Multi Drag | Drags several slides at once. Pro. | No |
| Infinite Mode | Loops past the last slide back to the first. | Yes |
| Pause On Hover | Stops autoplay while the pointer is over the carousel. Pro. | No |
| Adaptive Height | Lets the carousel height follow the current slide. | No |
| Animation Type | ease or linear. | ease |
| Autoplay / Autoplay Speed | Advances on its own, every Autoplay Speed milliseconds. | Yes / 3000 |
| Show Dots / Dots Style | Dot navigation, in seven styles. Dots are not drawn when every slide already fits on screen. | Yes / Style-1 |
| Show Arrows / Arrows Style | Arrow navigation, in six styles. | No / Pro Style-1, free Style-2 |
| Center Mode | Highlights the middle slide. Pro, together with Center Padding, Center Slide Effects (None, Scale or Shadow), the two scale sliders and Normal Slide Opacity. | No |
| Number Of Rows | Stacks the carousel into 1, 2 or 3 rows. Pro. | 1 |
| Responsive Tablet / Responsive Mobile | Let the tablet and mobile tabs override every carousel setting, not just the column count. Pro. | No |
Two different dropdowns inside Carousel Options are both labelled Arrows Style. The first picks the arrow design, the second picks where the arrows sit (Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Center or Bottom Right).
How It Behaves
- The default widget is a carousel reading the testimonial post type, not a grid.
- Grid and Masonry both use the same column classes; Masonry additionally packs each card into the shortest column instead of aligning rows.
- The carousel’s tablet and mobile column values become the slider’s breakpoints at 1024 px and 768 px.
- Text limiting (Excerpt Limit, Title Limit and the Read More link) only works with the Repeater source. With the Post Type source the full text is always shown.
- When the query returns nothing the widget prints Posts not found.
Limitations
- Style-3 needs Pro. In the free plugin choosing it replaces the whole listing with the text This Style Premium Version.
- Content Limit By set to Text Limit does nothing with the Post Type source. Excerpt Limit and Title Limit are Repeater-only controls, but Pro still offers Content Limit By for the Post Type source, so nothing is truncated and no expand link appears.
- Content Height does not mean the same thing in both editions. In Pro it fixes the height of the whole card, so a short value clips the author image and name. In the free plugin it only fixes the height of the testimonial text.
- In the free plugin, Content Scroll has no effect when the source is Post Type – the class that hides the scrollbar until hover is never printed, so the scrollbar is always visible.
- In the free plugin, the Company Logo is ignored when the source is Post Type. It renders from a repeater row, and in Pro from the post type, but not from the post type in the free plugin.
- Repeater rows on Grid and Masonry produce a duplicate empty title and text block in the markup. Nothing is visible, but any custom CSS or script that targets those classes will match twice per card.
- Columns Manage disappears entirely on the Carousel layout – set the column count in Style > Carousel Options instead.
Troubleshooting
The widget shows one large testimonial instead of several
You are on the Carousel layout, which is the default. In the free plugin the carousel shows one slide at a time; raise Desktop Columns under Style > Carousel Options, or switch the Layout to Grid.
The listing says Posts not found
There are no published testimonials matching the query. Check that the testimonial post type is switched on under The Plus Addons > Extra Options > Listing > Testimonial, that the posts are published, and that Offset Posts is not larger than the number of testimonials you have.
Changing Columns Manage does nothing
Read the label, not the number: Column 4 means four cards per row. If the section is missing altogether, the Layout is set to Carousel.
Read More never appears
Set Select Source to Repeater, Layout to Carousel, Content Limit By to Text Limit and Excerpt Limit to By Words or By Letters. With the Post Type source the text is never cut.
