Create WordPress image sliders and carousels with autoplay, navigation controls, and lightbox support.
When a carousel is the right layout
The Slider layout puts gallery items on a moving strip instead of a static grid. It runs on Swiper and holds one slide on screen, or several side by side. Arrows and bullets move it by hand. Autoplay moves it on a timer. The carousel above transitions in 0.4 seconds, advances every 5 seconds and has Loop on, so the last photo runs into the first.
Pick it when the images have an order and the space on the page is fixed. A band across the top of a landing page is the usual case. If people arrive to compare forty photos and choose one, masonry serves them better. A carousel keeps thirty-nine of them off screen.
Autoplay, height and navigation
Setting Layout to Slider replaces the column controls with a panel of its own, listed in full in the Slider layout reference.
- Effect is Slide, Coverflow or Fade. A new block uses Slide. Fade shows one image at a time and hides Slides Per View.
- Speed (in Seconds) is the transition itself, 0 to 5 in steps of 0.1, and defaults to 0.3. The demo above uses 0.4.
- Autoplay (in Seconds) accepts 0 to 60 and defaults to 6. At 0 the carousel waits for the visitor. Above 0 a Pause on Mouse Over switch appears.
- Items Height decides whether slides crop. Auto follows each image, Static is a fixed 30 to 800 px, and Dynamic is 10 to 300 percent of the slide width, 80 by default and 160 on this page. Items Minimal Height takes a CSS length, so 100vh fills the screen.
- Slides Per View is Auto or 1 to 6, three by default, with Centered Slides on. Gap runs 0 to 200 px and starts at 15.
- Arrows are on by default, bullets and Mousewheel Control off. Turn bullets on and Dynamic Bullets appears, which this demo uses. Display Thumbnails adds a second carousel under the first, 8 per view at 100 px, as on the slider with thumbnails page.
Turning a media gallery into slides
- Add the Visual Portfolio block, choose Media as the source and click Add Media. Pick the photos, then drag them in the list underneath into playing order.
- Open Layout, switch it to Slider, then set Speed, Autoplay and Items Height. Turn Loop on if the set should wrap around, and Display Bullets on for a long strip.
- Set Click Action to Popup so a slide opens full size in the lightbox. Title Source and Description Source pick the caption there, and a wizard-built gallery starts on Item Title and Item Description.
Sliders without a license
None of the above needs Pro. The Slider layout, its whole panel, the thumbnail row and the lightbox ship in the free plugin. Pro is that same plugin with more in it, one download rather than an add-on. Around a carousel it changes four things. The free versus Pro table has the full split and the pricing page the cost.
- Responsive Breakpoints, under Settings, General. They move the five widths at which Slides Per View steps down, 320, 576, 768, 992 and 1200 px.
- Deep Linking, Loop and Load Next Pages in Settings, Popup & Lightbox. An open slide gets an address of its own, and the lightbox wraps past the last image.
- Thumbnails Opened At Startup and Thumbnails Position inside the Fancybox lightbox. PhotoSwipe has no thumbnails at all. The thumbnail carousel on the page itself is free.
- Video files from the Media Library as slides, and a second image or video shown while the pointer sits on a slide.
Crops, reuse and page builders
Why does the slider crop my photos?
Static and Dynamic give the slide a height of its own, and the photo is cropped to fill it. Auto sizes each slide to its image, and the carousel changes height as it moves. To keep the fixed height, set the image’s focal point in Media Settings so the crop keeps what matters. The answer on cropped images covers the other layouts.
How do I put the same slider on several pages?
Select the block in the editor and create a synced pattern. Edit it once and every page carrying it updates. Outside the block editor, save the carousel as a Saved Layout and place that layout instead. Both routes are in reusing the same gallery.
Does the slider work in Elementor and WPBakery?
Yes. Elementor has a widget, WPBakery an element, and the Classic Editor a toolbar button. On an Elementor site the block uses Elementor’s own copy of Swiper, so the library never loads twice. Any other builder takes the Saved Layout, as theme and builder support explains.
