BT Announce Bar Documentation

Display a fully customizable announcement bar on your WordPress site with static or scrolling text, icons, badge pills, gradient backgrounds, and a dismissible close button.

Overview

BT Announce Bar is a free WordPress plugin that adds a customizable announcement bar to your site. Use it to promote sales, share news, display a maintenance notice, or highlight any message you want every visitor to see.

The bar supports static and scrolling text, optional icons and badge pills, gradient backgrounds, 26 font choices, and a dismissible close button with multiple styles. Everything is configured from a single settings page with a live preview — no code required.

Installation

Download the .zip file from the Boulley Technology catalog or install it directly from the WordPress plugin directory. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins › Add New › Upload Plugin, select the ZIP file, and click Install Now.

Once installed, click Activate. The settings page is available at Settings › BT Announce Bar.

BT Announce Bar requires WordPress 5.0 or higher and PHP 7.4+.

Content Settings

The content section controls what your announcement bar displays:

Announcement Text — The main message displayed in the bar. Keep it concise — one or two sentences work best.
Link URL — An optional URL that makes the entire bar clickable. Visitors click anywhere on the bar to navigate to this link. Leave empty for a non-clickable bar.
Icon — An optional icon displayed before the announcement text. Choose from a built-in icon picker with common options like megaphone, star, bell, info circle, tag, gift, and more.
Badge Pill — A small colored label that appears before the main text, useful for categorizing the announcement. Choose from preset labels like "New", "Sale", "Info", "Alert", "Update", "Pro Tip", "Limited", and "Free" — or type a custom label.

Tip: Combine an icon, a badge pill, and concise text for maximum visual impact. For example: a megaphone icon + "Sale" badge + "50% off all plans this weekend."

Display Mode

BT Announce Bar supports two display modes:

Static — The text is displayed as a centered, fixed message. This is the default mode and works well for short announcements.
Scrolling — The text scrolls horizontally across the bar in a continuous loop, marquee-style. This is effective for longer messages or when you want to draw extra attention to the bar.

When scrolling mode is active, an additional Scroll Speed slider appears. Adjust the speed from slow (gentle drift) to fast (rapid scroll). The animation uses CSS transforms for smooth, GPU-accelerated performance with no impact on page load times.

Appearance

The appearance section gives you full control over the bar's visual design:

Background Color — A color picker for the bar's background. Supports any hex color.
Gradient — Optionally enable a gradient background with a second color. The gradient flows from the background color to the gradient color, left to right.
Text Color — The color of the announcement text.
Font Family — Choose from 26 fonts organized in 5 categories:
- System — System UI, Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Times New Roman
- Sans-Serif — Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Poppins, Nunito, Montserrat, Raleway
- Serif — Playfair Display, Merriweather, Lora, PT Serif
- Monospace — JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Source Code Pro
- Display — Oswald, Bebas Neue
Google Fonts are loaded automatically when a non-system font is selected.
Font Size — Set the text size in pixels. The default is 14px.
Padding — Control the vertical padding (top and bottom) of the bar in pixels. The default is 12px.

Position & Behavior

Control where the bar appears and how it behaves:

Position — Choose Top (above all page content) or Bottom (fixed to the bottom of the viewport). Top is the default and most common placement.
Sticky — When enabled, the bar stays visible as the visitor scrolls down the page. When disabled, the bar scrolls away with the rest of the content. Sticky mode uses position: sticky for top bars and position: fixed for bottom bars.
Dismissible — When enabled, a close button appears on the bar. Visitors can click it to hide the bar for the remainder of their session. The dismissal state is stored in sessionStorage, so the bar reappears on the next visit.

Note: When using a sticky top bar, the plugin automatically adds top padding to your page body so the bar does not overlap your site's header or navigation.

Close Button

When the bar is set to dismissible, you can customize the close button's appearance:

Style — Three options are available:
- X — A simple, minimal X character. Clean and unobtrusive.
- Circle-X — An X inside a circular border. More visible and easier to click on mobile.
- Pill — A rounded pill-shaped button with the word "Close". The most prominent option, ideal if you want to make dismissibility obvious.
Size — Control the close button size in pixels.
Color — The color of the X icon or text.
Background — An optional background color behind the close button. Useful for ensuring the button is visible on gradient or image backgrounds.

FAQ

Can I display different announcements on different pages?

BT Announce Bar displays a single, site-wide announcement. It does not currently support per-page targeting. If you need different messages on different pages, you can use a shortcode-based banner plugin alongside this one, or toggle the bar on and off manually as needed.

Does the bar affect my site's performance?

No. BT Announce Bar outputs minimal HTML and inline CSS. If a Google Font is selected, a single font file is loaded asynchronously. The scrolling animation uses CSS transforms, which are GPU-accelerated and do not cause layout shifts or jank. There is no JavaScript dependency for the bar display itself — only a small script for the dismiss button functionality.

How long does the dismiss last?

The dismiss state is stored in sessionStorage, which means it persists until the visitor closes their browser tab or window. On their next visit, the bar will appear again. This ensures returning visitors see updated announcements while giving current visitors the ability to hide the bar if they have already seen it.

Does the bar show on mobile devices?

Yes. The bar is fully responsive and adapts to all screen sizes. On smaller screens, the text wraps naturally and the close button remains easily tappable. The scrolling mode works on touch devices as well. Font sizes and padding scale appropriately for mobile viewports.