In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you will learn how to configure other widgets.
Add Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. All you have to do, therefore, is place the 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 the sidebar menu, we first recommend configuring the Categoriessection inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress post categories will be explained in other tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your widget 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 your sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your content will look to your site visitors …
(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 option, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, 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 by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to configure. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want 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 …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to create and edit a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages In Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation area for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar (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 select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from showing on the widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: Finding A WP Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now appear on the sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display different page groups on your sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Blog Sidebar Area
Next, let’s add a widget that will display external links on your sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your Links section inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure the Links feature.
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 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 …
(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 WordPress Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Menu)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation 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 lists of links to the sidebar section.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)