In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other sidebar widgets.
Adding Post Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Post Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar area, we recommend configuring the Categoriesfeature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure WordPress categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for your widget 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 have too many 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. (2)
- You can leave the other options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your Categories widget will display to 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 option as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section To The Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is 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 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)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on creating and editing a WordPress Post here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll 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)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- 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 pages on the sidebar menu (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from showing in the widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find Page And Post IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now show in your sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you need to display different groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The WordPress Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget to display external links on the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create a separate tutorial on how to use the Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 …
(WordPress 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)
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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(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 link lists to the sidebar.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
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