In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
Adding Categories To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar menu. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your categories …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials about how to use post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your 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. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your content will look to visitors …
(WordPress 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, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget is added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to set up here. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you want 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 …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
For a tutorial about how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A New WP Post
Display Your Site’s Pages In Your Sidebar Area
Next, we’ll 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 active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to 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: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar navigation area (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 in the widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The Post Or Page ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now display on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation section. This is useful if you need to display separate page groups on your sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section
Next, let’s add a widget that will display external links on the sidebar menu.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide a separate tutorial if you need help on how to set up the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(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 section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation section 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 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 the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar section)
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 WordPress sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series.
To continue, click here:
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