Hi there,

Thank you for getting in touch.

Unfortunately, we currently don't have a way to add columns to the footer as this would require some extensive customization of theme files which I'm afraid we are not able to offer due to support scope limitations. 

However, we are partnered with a trusted provider of expert-level Salient customization. If you are interested in initiating a project, we recommend referring to our guide at the following link: https://themenectar.com/salient/customization/

We appreciate your understanding with this.

Best Regards,

Hi Jordan,

Thank you for getting back to us.

Allow me to escalate this to the developer for advice.

Wea appreciate your patience with this.

Kind regards,

Hey TheSnapAgency,

You would also need to register your new widget area using the following snippet in your child theme functions.php file:

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'salient_child_register_widget_areas' );
function salient_child_register_widget_areas() {
  register_sidebar(
    array(
            'name'          => 'Footer Area 5',
        'id'            => 'footer-area-5',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget'  => '</div>',
        'before_title'  => '<h4>',
        'after_title'   => '</h4>',
    )
  );
}

Kind regards

You're welcome, TheSnapAgency

The widgets are registered in salient/nectar/helpers/widget-related.php

Kind regards

You're welcome,  TheSnapAgency
That the widget-related file can't be dragged into a child theme. However, instead of going that route, you could just copy all of the needed register_sidebar calls into your child theme functions.php e.g.

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'salient_child_register_widget_areas' );
function salient_child_register_widget_areas() {
  register_sidebar(
    array(
            'name'          => 'Footer Area 5',
        'id'            => 'footer-area-5',
        'before_widget' => '<div id="%1$s" class="widget %2$s">',
        'after_widget'  => '</div>',
        'before_title'  => '<h4>',
        'after_title'   => '</h4>',
    )
  );
  global $nectar_options;
  $footer_columns = ( ! empty( $nectar_options['footer_columns'] ) ) ? $nectar_options['footer_columns'] : '4';
  if ( $footer_columns === '6' ) {
     // ADD ALL OF THE REGISTER CALLS HERE
  }
}

In general, regular template files can be copied into the child theme, and they will be used as long as the file path matches. However, helper files that only contain functions can't be copied into a child theme. Instead, you would need to copy the functions from within the file to your child theme as needed. In the case of the function within the widgets file, it's not set up yet to be overridable via a child theme, which is why I suggested the other route of registering the sidebars via a new action.

For this case of your footer modifications, I would recommend simply utilizing a global section instead to create your footer via the page builder, instead of following your current route if you're concerned about maintaining the modification: https://themenectar.com/docs/salient/page-builder-global-sections/