In Part 1 of this tutorial, 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 frequently-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar menu by default. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we recommend configuring the Post Categoriesfeature inside your WordPress dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on how to use post categories.
Configure the Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (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 WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload your page to see how the Categories widget will look to your 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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- 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 To The Blog Sidebar Area
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really not much to configure in this widget. 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar navigation section)
To learn how to create a WordPress Post, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To The Blog Sidebar Area
Next, we’ll 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 area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar area)
The Pages widget lets you 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: Prevent pages from showing on the sidebar navigation menu (3) …
(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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying to visitors, simply type their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
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 Your WordPress Website
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is handy if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to display external links on the sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure the Links feature inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring and using the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar 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 WordPress Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Section)
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 widget will display immediately on your sidebar menu …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar menu)
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 section 3 of this tutorial series on how to use Widgets.
Click here to read Part Four:
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