By default, a WordPress carousel slider will have some navigation controls like arrows or dots but at times you might want to hide them, especially if you are controlling the slider with some other blocks like the Carousel Remote block.
To check the complete feature overview documentation of the Nexter Blocks Carousel Anything block, click here.
Requirement – This block is part of Nexter Blocks. Make sure it is installed and activated.
What It Does
The Dots & Arrows section inside the Carousel Anything block lets you show or hide the pagination dots and the previous/next arrow navigation on a WordPress carousel slider independently of each other. Each control has its own toggle, and once a toggle is on, a full set of styling options appears for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Why It Matters
Carousel navigation is not one-size-fits-all. Visible arrows or dots can clash with a minimal design, become redundant when a separate Carousel Remote block already drives the slider, or physically overlap a full-screen hero. Being able to switch each control off (or restyle it) independently means the carousel fits the layout instead of the layout working around the carousel.
What You Get
- A dedicated Dots & Arrows section in the Carousel Anything block settings
- Independent on/off toggles for dots and for arrows
- Per-device styling (desktop, tablet, mobile) once a toggle is enabled
- Preset style options, color controls, and hover-only visibility for both dots and arrows
Benefits
- Ship minimal, on-brand carousels without writing custom CSS to hide default navigation
- Avoid duplicate or conflicting navigation when a carousel is already driven by a Carousel Remote block
- Keep full-screen hero sections clean by hiding dots that would otherwise sit on top of content
Capabilities
Verified against the block’s current settings panel:
Dots:
- Show/Hide toggle for the dots navigation
- 7 dot style presets (Style 1 through Style 7)
- Border color and background color for normal and active-dot states
- Top spacing control (px) above the dots row
- Hover-only visibility, so dots appear only when the visitor’s cursor is over the carousel
Arrows:
- Show/Hide toggle for the arrow navigation
- 6 arrow style presets (Style 1 through Style 6)
- An arrow position control (top-right, bottom-left, bottom-center, or bottom-right)
- Icon color and background color for normal and hover states
- An outer-arrows option that renders the arrows outside the carousel container (horizontal mode only)
- Hover-only visibility, so arrows appear only when the visitor’s cursor is over the carousel
Both dots and arrows are styled through these preset and color fields rather than a raw custom-CSS field, so shape and size beyond the listed presets are not directly editable from the panel.
How It Works
Each toggle (Dots, Arrows) simply switches the corresponding navigation element on or off for the whole carousel; it is not evaluated per slide. When a toggle is on, the block reveals its matching style group, and those settings apply per breakpoint, so you can, for example, show arrows on desktop but hide them on mobile.
How to Use It
- Add the Carousel Anything block to the page and create your slides.
- Open the Dots & Arrows section in the block settings.
- To hide the dots navigation, toggle off Dots. With Dots enabled instead, choose a dot style, set the border and background color, adjust the top spacing, and optionally enable hover-only visibility.
- To hide the arrow navigation, toggle off Arrows. With Arrows enabled instead, choose an arrow style and position, set the icon and background colors, optionally move the arrows outside the carousel container, and optionally enable hover-only visibility.
Use Cases
- Minimal design portfolios where visible navigation chrome breaks the aesthetic
- Carousels synced to a Carousel Remote block, where the built-in arrows or dots are redundant
- Full-screen hero sections where dot navigation would overlap the content
Limitations
- The Dots toggle is all-or-nothing for the whole carousel; it cannot automatically hide a single dot for one empty dynamic slide while keeping the rest visible.
- Dot and arrow styling is limited to the built-in style presets plus color and spacing fields; there is no raw custom-CSS field for shape or size in the panel itself.
- The outer-arrows option only applies in horizontal slider mode.
- The Dots & Arrows section only appears when the Nexter Blocks plugin is installed and active.
Troubleshooting
- Dots won’t hide only for empty/dynamic slides. A customer running dynamic content in slides asked for a way to hide the dot for a slide left empty by a dynamic field, so the dot count would match only the populated slides (support ticket, closed). The Dots toggle controls the whole navigation row, not individual dots per slide; there is no per-slide dot suppression in the current panel. If your slides come from dynamic fields that can be empty, plan the slide count around that limitation or filter empty entries before they reach the carousel.
- Arrow styling looks locked to a preset. A customer asked why arrow styling only offers preset options (Style 1, Style 2, and so on) instead of full custom styling, and a separate customer asked about swapping in fully custom arrow icons (both support tickets, closed). This matches current behavior: arrows are styled through the listed presets plus color and position fields, not a free-form icon or CSS override.
- The Dots & Arrows section is missing entirely. Not sourced from a support ticket; this is grounded in the block’s own documented requirement above. If the section does not appear in the Carousel Anything settings at all, confirm the Nexter Blocks plugin is installed and active on the site, then reload the editor.
Also, check How to increase size of Center slide in WordPress Carousel.
