In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other WordPress sidebar widgets.
Add Categories To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar menu, we recommend configuring your Post Categoriessection inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to provide a tutorial that explains how to configure post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories widget 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 plan to have several categories (this significantly reduces the length of the content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar section. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your content will display 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 unticked.
- 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 A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to configure. You can add a 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 change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will be listed on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
For a tutorial about how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To Your Sidebar Menu
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation area to display the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar menu)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from displaying 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 another option, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing on your sidebar, simply enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The ID Of A Page Or Post In Your WordPress Blog
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the site’s main pages will now show on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar menu. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Sidebar
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar area.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar area, you will first need to configure your Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress Links will be covered in other tutorials.
To add the widget, select 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 menu …
(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)
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 the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(External links added to WordPress 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 your WordPress sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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