Blog

In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.

In this section we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used WordPress blog widgets.

How To Add Post Categories To Your Blog Sidebar

Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar section.

The Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation section by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …

(WordPress Categories widget)

your categories …

(WordPress Categories)

Note: Configuring and using WordPress categories will be explained in separate tutorials.

Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as described below:

• In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
• If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unticked. (2)
• You can leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
• Click Save to update your settings …

(Categories widget settings)

Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to visitors …

(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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 unticked.
• To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …

(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)

Add Recent Posts

The Recent Posts widget displays on your sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.

Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …

(Recent Posts WordPress widget)

There’s very little to configure. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with 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 have specified will appear on your sidebar …

(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar)

For a tutorial on how to create WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress

Add A Pages Widget

Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar section for listing pages.

Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Pages Widget)

Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …

(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar)

The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:

• Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Site 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 displaying on your 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …

(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)

To prevent pages from showing on the sidebar, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …

(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)

To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Find The Post Or Page ID In WordPress

Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.

Links to the main pages will now appear in your sidebar menu …

(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)

Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation section. This is handy if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)

Add A Links Widget

Now, let’s add a widget for displaying external links on your sidebar.

Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar area, we recommend setting up the Links section inside your dashboard first …

(WordPress Links screen)

Note: Setting up WordPress Links will be explained in separate tutorials.

To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Links Widget)

Drag the 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 menu …

(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 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 …

( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)

When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …

(External links added to WordPress sidebar navigation section)

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 navigation section.

***

This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Add Widgets To WordPress – Part Four

***