In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other sidebar widgets.
Adding Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar navigation section.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar area, we recommend configuring your Categoriessection inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up WordPress categories.
Configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 your sidebar navigation menu. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the content will display to visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar section)
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 box unticked.
- 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 To The Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally appears in your sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to set up in this widget. 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 Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will appear on the sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget on blog sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to create and edit posts in WordPress here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Information“) (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) …
(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 …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from showing in the widget, just type their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
A tutorial is provided on finding a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now appear in your sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation menu. This is helpful if you would like to display different groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar navigation area that will display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the WordPress dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Setting up the WordPress Links feature will be covered in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 your sidebar …
(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 WordPress Links Widgets To The Sidebar Navigation Section)
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 sidebar)
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 the sidebar.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
To continue, click this link:
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