In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other frequently-used blog widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget To Your Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar section by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your post categories inside the dashboard …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: Using WordPress categories will be covered in other tutorials.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the widget 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 unticked. (2)
- 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 reload the page to see how your content will look to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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 box unchecked.
- 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 To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really not much to set up here. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on how to create WordPress Posts here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar section linking visitors to the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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 (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from showing in your widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Locate A Page Or Post ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your main pages will now display on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is helpful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar for displaying links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up your Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar area …
(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 the sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation area 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on your WordPress sidebar area …
(External 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 your sidebar menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series on using WordPress widgets.
To continue reading, click this link:
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