# Styling the sidebar without using CSS?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050 "2023-09-14T19:04:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MarximusMG](https://meta.discourse.org/u/MarximusMG)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050/1 "2023-09-14T19:04:09Z")
Hey everyone!
I’m wanting to know if there’s a way to configure the styling of the sidebar in the admin panel without using CSS?
I’m wanting the sidebar on my site (shown below) to match the simple styling that’s used in the Discourse forum.
Thanks in advance!
---
### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2023, 8:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050/3 "2023-09-14T20:08:41Z")
Ours is just the Default styling here on Meta. Though it also looks like you may need to update your Discourse to pull in the latest changes.
What bits in particular are you trying to replicate?
---
### Author:  [@MarximusMG](https://meta.discourse.org/u/MarximusMG)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2023, 4:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050/4 "2023-09-20T16:51:58Z")
Gotcha! I’ve customized my Discourse install quite a bit, so I haven’t used the auto update in the admin dashboard to upgrade from 3.1.0 to 3.2.0.
I’ll be spending some time shortly to update to 3.2.0 and hopefully that will bring the styling in line with the default styling.
Specifically, I was wanting to increase the font size of the category titles, as well as change the sidebar background color to #FFFFFF.
On this topic of sidebar customization, I’m also curious to know if there’s any way to replace the bullet visual style for the category badges with emojis?
For instance instead of the standard:
replacing the colorized bullets with an emoji like this:
---
### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050/5 "2023-09-20T17:03:37Z")
> [@MarximusMG](#):
>
> I’m also curious to know if there’s any way to replace the bullet visual style for the category badges with emojis?
Hi!
This is possible with this theme component:
> [@Twemoji Icons](https://meta.discourse.org/t/twemoji-icons/272295):
>
> information_sourceSummary Use Twitter emojis as icons in Discourse.hammer_and_wrenchRepository [GitHub - nolosb/discourse-twemoji-icons: Use twemojis as icons in Discourse. · GitHub](https://github.com/nolosb/discourse-twemoji-icons.git)questionInstall Guide [How to install a theme or theme component](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-do-i-install-a-theme-or-theme-component/63682)open_bookNew to Discourse Themes? [Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-using-discourse-themes/91966) Install this theme component The component adds Twitter emojis as icons. You can use emojis to add category and tag icons using the respecti…
🙂
Note that it’s not quite optimized (see the replies) and can only use Twitter’s emojis.
As an alternative, there’s this:
> [@Category Icons](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-icons/104683):
>
> warning This theme component is deprecated and should no longer be used. Its features are now in Discourse Core (see: [Bringing popular features to Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bringing-popular-features-to-discourse-header-search-welcome-banner-and-category-icons-emoji/359169)). For private category icon customization, refer to [this topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-aliases-for-replacing-lock-icons-on-closed-topics-and-restricted-categories/373778). discourse2Summary Category Icons allows category badge links to have icons next to the category name.eyeglassesPreview [Preview on Discourse Theme Creator](https://discourse.theme-creator.io/theme/Discourse/category-icons)hammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-category-icons](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-category-icons) …
---
### Author:  [@MarximusMG](https://meta.discourse.org/u/MarximusMG)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2023, 8:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/styling-the-sidebar-without-using-css/279050/6 "2023-09-20T20:06:49Z")
Thank you so much, this is really helpful!