In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar navigation area, we first recommend setting up the Post Categoriesfeature inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Categories Panel)
Note: How to configure and use WordPress post categories will be covered in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar navigation area. (2)
- Leave the remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the content will display to your visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar)
Tips:
- Change the default Uncategorized post category to something more meaningful.
- If you use nested categories on your site, you may want to check the Show hierarchy box, otherwise leave this section as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to set up here. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will be listed on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar section)
Creating new posts in WordPress is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New WP Post
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, just type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Find The Unique ID Of Posts And Pages In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now appear on the sidebar navigation area …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you need to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar that will display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure the Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar area …
(Making Links Widget active)
The Links widget offers a number of configurable options, including the ability to specify what information to show about your links and how many links you want to display on the sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar as you want. As you will see in a moment, this lets you create and display specific lists of links on your site …
(Add Multiple WordPress Links Widgets To Your Sidebar)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(WordPress Links widget: ‘Sort by:’ drop-down menu)
You can also create and display a list of items for a specific category, by selecting a link category from the ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation section)
As the above example shows, you can display specific external links to your site visitors (e.g. a list for a specific link category only), and add multiple link lists to your sidebar.
***
This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
Click here to access Part Four:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)