In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you will configure other WordPress widgets.
Add A Categories Widget
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar menu.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we recommend configuring your post categories first …
(Post Categories)
Note: Setting up WordPress categories will be explained in other tutorials.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your 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 other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your Categories widget will look to your 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 unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, 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 Section
The Recent Posts widget is typically added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to set up. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on your sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar navigation section)
Creating new posts in WordPress is explained in this tutorial: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
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 area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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: Hide pages 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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, simply type or paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: How To Find The Post Or Page ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the main pages will now appear on the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar menu. This is helpful if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to display external links on your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your active 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 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 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your widget will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Links added to WordPress 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 tutorial on using Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click here:
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