In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you will learn how to configure other widgets.
Adding A Categories Widget To Your Sidebar Navigation Section
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar navigation area.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation area by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your your WordPress post categories …
(Post Categories)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress post categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your widget content by displaying all categories inside 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 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 browser or reload your page to see how your content will display to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 box unchecked.
- 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 A Recent Posts Widget To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget is added to the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to configure in this widget. You can add a 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 widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will appear on your sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to blog sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to create a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu linking visitors to your site’s pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar section)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from showing on your sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying in your widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: Finding The WP Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished 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 your sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar Area
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar section.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Setting up the Links feature in WordPress will be explained in other tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(Making Links Widget active)
The 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 menu …
(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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Area)
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. Your links will become immediately visible on the WordPress sidebar …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar)
As the above example shows, you can display specific links to your site visitors (e.g. a list for a specific link category only), and add multiple link lists to your sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
Click here to continue reading:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum