In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section we will continue configuring other frequently-used blog widgets.
Add A Categories Widget
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display your Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: Configuring and using categories in WordPress will be covered in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to add many categories (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)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how the sidebar categories will display to your site 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 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 To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on your sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts 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’re happy with 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 WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on the sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on how to create posts in WordPress here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation section to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget lets you 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from displaying on the sidebar menu (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying in the widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial that explain how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The WordPress Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar area. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a Links widget for displaying external links on the WordPress sidebar navigation menu.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar, we first recommend configuring your Links feature inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide separate step-by-step tutorials on how to set up and use WordPress Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 the sidebar navigation section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 Navigation Area)
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 your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on your site …
(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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar area.
***
This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To continue, click here:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)