In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other default WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar area. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your Categoriesfeature first …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to set up and use post categories.
Configure the Categories settings for this 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 the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar. (2)
- Leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh your page to see how the sidebar categories will display to site visitors …
(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 box, otherwise leave this option as is.
- 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 To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really not much to set up in this widget. 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 with 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will be listed on the sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget added to blog sidebar)
Creating a new WordPress Post is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu that links to the pages on your site.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “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 being visible on your sidebar navigation menu (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 choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying to your visitors, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Find Page And Post IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now appear on your sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on your sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to the sidebar that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links feature inside the WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 area …
(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 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to 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 menu.
***
This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
Click here to continue:
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now