In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, 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 commonly-used blog widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar navigation area.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar menu by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your your WordPress categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: Setting up WordPress categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of your 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 unchecked. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how the Categories widget will look to 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 section as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, enable 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 is typically added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really not much to set up here. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will be listed on the sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts widget added to blog sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating posts in WordPress here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Adding A Pages Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu that will link to the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(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. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to hide pages on the sidebar navigation menu (3) …
(WordPress 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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying in your widget, just paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: How To Locate Post And Page IDs In A WordPress Site
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on the sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar navigation menu that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up your Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the widget 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 navigation section …
(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 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your widget will display immediately on your site …
(External links added to sidebar)
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 your sidebar section.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial.
To continue reading, click this link:
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