In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other sidebar widgets.
Add Categories To Your Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar area. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure your categories inside your WP dashboard …
(Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create tutorials on how to configure and use post categories.
Configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar area. (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 …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the Categories widget will display to your 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 section 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
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is not much to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and 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 WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on blog sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Pages In Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Next, let’s 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 widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar area)
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: Prevent pages from appearing on the sidebar section (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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying on your widget, type in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find Post And Page IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display different groups of pages on the sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your WordPress sidebar for displaying links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your Links section inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Using WordPress Links 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 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 your sidebar …
(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 The 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar area)
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 area.
***
This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series about using Widgets.
To continue, click here:
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com