In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will learn how to configure other commonly-used WordPress blog widgets.
Adding A Post Categories Section To Your Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Post Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation section by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar menu, we recommend setting up your categories first …
(Categories)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about setting up and using WordPress categories.
Configure your categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how your Categories widget will look to 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 option, otherwise leave this option as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to set up here. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit a WordPress Post, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation section for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or 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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in the widget, just paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Find A Page Or Post ID In Your WP Website
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your main pages will now appear in your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation area. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your WordPress Sidebar Section
Now, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar area that displays links to external resources.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials that show you how to set up WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your active 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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 Links Widgets To The Sidebar)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(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 to update your settings. Your widget will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar navigation section …
(External links added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 WordPress sidebar.
***
This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials about how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
***
"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum