In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
Adding Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on your sidebar navigation area.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar menu. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar section, you will first need to configure the Categoriessection inside the dashboard …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use post categories in WordPress.
Configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (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 web browser or reload your page to see how the content will look to 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 A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget normally shows on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its 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 with 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will display on the sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget added to blog sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar section)
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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar menu (3) …
(WordPress 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 select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying to your visitors, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on finding a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate A WP Page Or Post ID
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now display in your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is handy if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a widget to your WordPress sidebar navigation area for displaying links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation menu, we recommend setting up the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on how to configure and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the widget 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 …
(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 The 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar)
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 WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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