In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other WordPress widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar menu.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar section. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your your WordPress categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create step-by-step tutorials on how to configure WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to have several categories (this significantly reduces the size of the widget 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 navigation section. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, 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 browser or refresh the page to see how the Categories widget will display to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar section)
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 unchecked.
- 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 Section
The Recent Posts widget normally shows on the sidebar navigation area 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 very little to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and 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 widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will appear 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 WP Post
Adding Links To Your Site’s Main Pages In The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (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 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying on the widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: How To Locate 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 main pages will now appear in your sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section
Now, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar to display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar area, you should first configure your Links feature inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar area …
(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 navigation area …
(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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Links added to 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 lists of links to the WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series on how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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"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