In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar navigation section by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation section, you should first configure your post categories inside your dashboard …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: Configuring post categories in WordPress will be explained in other tutorials.
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 plan to add several categories (this significantly reduces the length of the widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar navigation menu. (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 …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how your content will look to site visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar area)
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 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
The Recent Posts widget is typically added to the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really not much to set up. You can add a title if you want, 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 enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area 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)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Info“) (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 your 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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying on your widget, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find A WordPress Post Or Page ID
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 the sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Sidebar Section
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar section, we recommend configuring the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials that explain how to use Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 …
(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 Your Sidebar Area)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on your site …
(External links added to 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 the WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial about using WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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