In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will learn how to configure other widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget To The Sidebar Navigation Menu
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 the sidebar area.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your Categoriesfeature inside your WordPress dashboard …
(Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to have many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar navigation section. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your Categories widget 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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- 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 Navigation Section
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to configure 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 want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to create a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New WP Post
Adding A Pages Widget To The Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar menu to display page links.
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 your sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar area (3) …
(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 – sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying in the widget, simply enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a WordPress page ID is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Locate A Post Or Page ID 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 the main pages will now show in the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section, you should first configure your Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on how to use Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(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 …
(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 Section)
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 …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar area)
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 navigation menu.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial.
Click here to continue:
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