In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
Add A Categories Section To Your Sidebar Navigation Section
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar menu, we first recommend setting up your Post Categoriesfeature inside the WP dashboard …
(Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use WordPress categories.
Let’s configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 the sidebar area. (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 …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how your content will display to your visitors …
(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 box, 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 Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts 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 opt to 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 be listed on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on blog sidebar)
Creating and editing posts in WordPress is covered here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To The Sidebar
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 sidebar widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation area)
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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar navigation section (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 – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying in your widget, type in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Find Page And Post IDs In A WordPress Website
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now show on your sidebar section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is helpful if you need to display different groups of pages on the sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend first setting up your Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Using the WordPress Links feature will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 …
(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 The 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 …
(Links added to sidebar section)
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 lists of links to the WordPress sidebar menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to view Part Four:
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