In Part One 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 are going to learn how to configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar area. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we first recommend configuring your categories inside your dashboard …
(Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to provide a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as described 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 inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar menu. (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 …
(Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how your sidebar categories will display 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 box, 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 Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget typically shows on the sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to configure. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and 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 a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will appear on the sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on blog sidebar)
For a tutorial about how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar section 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 area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide 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 choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying in the sidebar, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on finding a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate A Post Or Page ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now show on the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you need to display different page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget to display external links on your WordPress sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure your Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on configuring and using the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it to your active 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 section …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar navigation 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 Your Sidebar)
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 …
(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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials.
Click here to keep reading:
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