Arts Horizontal Scroll for Elementor

FAQ

Is it really free?

Yes. There is no Pro version and nothing in the widget is locked – what you install is the whole product. If it earns its keep, there’s a donate link.

Does it require Elementor Pro?

No. The free Elementor plugin is the only requirement, and the horizontal scroll behaves identically with or without Pro – nothing about the effect is gated behind it.

Pro is supported alongside it rather than required by it. Its Scrolling Effects and one-page menu highlighting keep working inside the section; page Scroll Snap keeps working around it, since the section takes itself out of the snap sequence instead of fighting the pin. The questions further down cover exactly how.

How is this different from Elementor Pro’s Horizontal Scroll effect?

Pro’s Horizontal Scroll is a motion effect, not a section. It slides one element sideways as the page scrolls past it, and the total distance it can travel is the Speed value times 100 pixels – so even at the maximum Speed of 10, the element moves 1000px in all. A four-panel full-width track needs several times that. The effect also never pins anything: the page keeps scrolling normally while the element slides, and the motion eases toward its target on a one-second transition rather than tracking the scroll position exactly.

Which is why the tutorials for building a real horizontal section don’t use it. They give each panel 100vw, make the container holding them sticky inside an over-tall wrapper, and paste in a JavaScript snippet that measures the track and maps scroll onto it – and you re-tune that whenever the content changes. This widget is the same arrangement as a real element: panels are Containers you add and remove, the travel is measured from the actual track width so it stays correct as the content changes, and Pro’s own effects keep working on elements inside the panels.

Will it slow down my site?

No. The browser itself moves the panels – the plugin doesn’t run animation code on every scroll step and doesn’t load a heavy animation library. Its whole frontend footprint is a few kilobytes of CSS and JavaScript. Browsers that don’t support the underlying CSS feature yet – Firefox today, older Safari – load a small polyfill on demand; everywhere else the motion is pure CSS.

What happens on phones and tablets?

By default the section switches to a vertical stack on touch devices – panels become normal full-width blocks in the page flow. You can turn that off to keep the horizontal scroll, or force the vertical layout below any breakpoint with the responsive Layout control.

Can I put any widget inside a panel?

Yes – panels are real Elementor Containers, Flexbox or Grid alike. Anything you can build in a Container works, including nested layouts.

The scroll feels too fast – what do I change?

Scroll Length. It sets how much page scroll the section consumes, so raising it stretches the same journey over more scrolling. Height is a different thing: it’s the pinned viewport the panels fill, not the distance they travel. Adding panels doesn’t speed anything up either – the section simply gets taller, and each panel still takes the same amount of scroll to cross.

I have a sticky header – will it get in the way?

No. The pin offset control sets where the section sticks, so it pins below your header instead of sliding behind it. The WordPress admin bar is accounted for automatically.

Can I mix horizontal and vertical scrolling on the same page?

Yes – that’s the default way to use it. The widget is a regular section in the page flow: place it anywhere between normal vertical content, and the page scrolls as usual before and after it. Several sections on one page work too; each runs independently.

Is this scroll hijacking?

No. The plugin never intercepts wheel, touch, or keyboard input. The page scrolls exactly as it always did; the section maps a stretch of that scroll to horizontal movement.

Will it conflict with my theme or other plugins?

It’s built to stay out of the way. It doesn’t bundle an animation library that could collide with your theme’s scripts. Scroll snap is neutralized on the section itself, so Elementor Pro’s Scroll Snap keeps working on the rest of the page. Smooth-scrolling libraries like Lenis are picked up automatically – the engine reads the native scroll position, which is exactly what they animate.

Does it work on right-to-left and multilingual sites?

Yes. On an RTL page the section mirrors on its own – panels lay out right-to-left and the first panel is still the one on stage – and the Direction control forces either direction when you don’t want that. WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress, and Weglot all work without setup: panels are real Elementor Containers with no widget text to register, so they translate like the rest of the page. If translated RTL text doesn’t mirror the section, the language’s pack is missing – install it or set Direction to Right to Left.

Which Elementor effects work on widgets inside the panels?

Effects that fire on becoming visible work as-is: entrance animations, lazy-loaded images and backgrounds, video autoplay-on-visible, counters and progress bars all trigger as their panel scrolls into view. Elementor Pro’s Scrolling Effects – on elements and on backgrounds – are corrected automatically: instead of freezing while the section is pinned, they follow the element’s ride across the stage, from entering on one side to leaving on the other. Effects set to “Entire Page” read the page’s own scroll, as always. Pro Sticky and Position: Fixed still don’t apply inside the panels – a moving track can’t hold a fixed element.

Can I put Motion Effects or an entrance animation on the widget itself?

An entrance animation works fine – the section fades or slides in, then pins and scrubs as usual. Elementor Pro’s Scrolling and Mouse Effects on the widget itself also run, but they move the whole pinned scene as one block – usually you want them on elements inside the panels instead, where they follow the horizontal ride. Two settings do break the pin: Pro’s Sticky, and Position set to absolute or fixed. The section visibly stops working the moment either is applied, and switching it back off restores everything.

Do anchor links work with the section?

Yes. Link to any element inside a panel – the panel’s own container or anything nested in it – with a normal CSS ID, and the page scrolls to the position where that panel is on stage: on click, and when the page loads with the link already in the URL. Where the pinned scroll isn’t running (touch stacking, a vertical Layout breakpoint, a browser without support), anchors scroll normally instead – nothing to configure.

Do one-page menus highlight the current panel?

With Elementor Pro’s menu widget, yes. Point menu items at panels – or anything inside them – with normal # links: clicking scrolls to that panel on stage, and while the section scrubs, exactly one menu item stays highlighted: the one whose panel is in view. Elementor Pro on its own toggles items independently and often lights two at once; inside the section the plugin arbitrates that down to a single, correct highlight. Your vertical anchors before and after the section behave as usual.

Can my own animations follow the horizontal scroll?

Yes. The section publishes a small stable surface: a named CSS scroll timeline, state variables to gate on, per-panel range variables, and a JavaScript timeline API that works the same whether the browser is native or polyfilled. Your own scroll-driven animations can ride the same scroll as the track – the README in the GitHub repository documents the full contract.