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 section you are going to learn how to configure other frequently-used widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Section To The Sidebar Menu
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on the sidebar section.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place the 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 your sidebar navigation section, we recommend setting up your categories first …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use WordPress categories.
Configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, 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 inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh your page to see how your sidebar categories will look to your 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 unticked.
- 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 Widget To The Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally displays in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to configure. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and 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 when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will be listed on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create a WordPress Post, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar area for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar)
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: Prevent pages from being visible on the sidebar (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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying to your visitors, simply enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of Pages And Posts In A WordPress Website
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now show on your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is useful if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar Menu
Next, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar that will display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure the Links section inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: How to use the WordPress Links feature will be covered in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it 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 the sidebar area …
(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 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to 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 your WordPress sidebar area.
***
This is the end of section three of this tutorial.
Click here to continue:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com