In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
Add Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar navigation section.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your your WordPress post categories …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on using WordPress post categories.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, 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). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your content will display 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 box, otherwise leave this option as is.
- 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 Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays in the sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really not much to configure. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on blog sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation area for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful 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 appearing on the sidebar navigation area (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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying on your widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a WordPress post or page ID is explained in this tutorial: How To Find The Unique ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
Click the Save button when finished and 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 blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar area. This is useful if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Area
Now, we’ll add a widget that will display external links on your WordPress sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create a tutorial about how to use the WordPress Links feature.
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 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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar section 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 The Sidebar Area)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(WordPress 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 links will display immediately on your site …
(External links added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 menu.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial.
Click here to continue:
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