Title: problems enabling shortcode in textwidget Last modified: August 22, 2016 --- # problems enabling shortcode in textwidget * Resolved [Unforgiven](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unforgiven/) * (@unforgiven) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/) * Hi all, * I’ve tried to add a twitter-follow button to my WP4.0 site, but for some reason, it doesn’t work. I used these articles: * [http://en.support.wordpress.com/twitter/twitter-follow-button/](http://en.support.wordpress.com/twitter/twitter-follow-button/) [http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/](http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/) * The widget does appear, but the shortcode is apparantly interpreted as text and is shown instead of the twitter button. * A google search learned that I should add a filter to the functions.php within the theme. See this link: [http://stephanieleary.com/2010/02/using-shortcodes-everywhere/](http://stephanieleary.com/2010/02/using-shortcodes-everywhere/) * But still, I see the shortcode as text. Has this behaviour changed in WP4.0 or am I missing something ? * cheers! Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * [lisa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/contentiskey/) * (@contentiskey) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345688) * can you post a link to your website * [startingwp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/startingwp/) * (@startingwp) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345690) * The link you included for the [Twitter Follow Button](http://en.support.wordpress.com/twitter/twitter-follow-button/) was for the WordPress.com service. * To do the same in your self hosted WordPress.org site, you would need to have the [Twitter Follow Button WordPress plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/twitter-follow/) installed. I’ve provided the instructions to install the plugin below. * Installing the plugin: 1. Go to your WordPress admin site 2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New 3. Search for Twitter Follow Button 4. Click Install Now button 5. Click OK to install 6. Click Activate Plugin to activate * Once the plugin is installed, you don’t need to do any other configuration, you just need to put the short code into a page or text widget. * However, having tested it on WordPress 4.0, I don’t think the plugin is working correctly. The configuration options in the short code e.g. screen_name or show_screen_name don’t work. Instead the button just shows the plugin authors screen name and follower count. * Thread Starter [Unforgiven](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unforgiven/) * (@unforgiven) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345778) * Hi Startingwp, * Thanks for replying. * Yeah, got the same result here in my WP4.0 installation with the Twitter Follow button. You can workaround it by renaming the username in the source code of the plugin, but that’s not the way to go I guess… * What should I do ? Any suggestions ? I mean, I suppose a lot of users will run into these problems wouldn’t it ? * cheers, Unforgiven * [startingwp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/startingwp/) * (@startingwp) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345790) * One solution is to put the HTML code for the Twitter follow button into a page, post or text widget. It’s not quite as neat as plugin and shortcode, but it works( tested on WordPress 4.0). * **Get Twitter follow button code** 1. Browse to [https://about.twitter.com/resources/buttons#follow](https://about.twitter.com/resources/buttons#follow) 2. Set Button options as required 3. Copy HTML code from right hand side * **To add Twitter follow button to existing page** 1. Browse to your WordPress admin site 2. Click Pages 3. Click page you want to put twitter button into 4. Click Text tab 5. Paste HTML code where you want the button 6. Click Update button Your Twitter follow button should appear on the page. * **To add Twitter follow button to existing post** 1. Browse to your WordPress admin site 2. Click Posts 3. Click post you want to put twitter button into 4. Click Text tab 5. Paste HTML code where you want the button 6. Click Update button Your Twitter follow button should appear on the post. * **To add Twitter follow button to the sidebar** 1. Browse to your WordPress admin site 2. Click Appearance > Widgets 3. Drag a Text widget to the Sidebar 4. Paste HTML code into main text box on widget 5. Click Save button Your Twitter follow button should appear on the sidebar. * Thread Starter [Unforgiven](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unforgiven/) * (@unforgiven) * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345815) * Hi Jonathan, * Works like a charm ! thanks a lot ! * cheers, Unforgiven (aka Andy) Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘problems enabling shortcode in textwidget’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 5 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Unforgiven](https://wordpress.org/support/users/unforgiven/) * Last activity: [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-enabling-shortcode-in-textwidget/#post-5345815) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics