In Part 1 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 you will learn how to configure other default widgets.
Add A Categories Section
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend first configuring your Post Categoriesfeature inside your WordPress dashboard …
(Categories Screen)
Note: Setting up and using categories in WordPress 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, 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 in 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 other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how the 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 box, otherwise leave this section as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section
The Recent Posts widget displays in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to set up in this widget. 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 enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will appear on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create WordPress Posts here: How To Create A WP Post
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages In Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation section to display your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying to your visitors, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages 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 Page And Post IDs In Your WordPress Site
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now show in the sidebar section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The WordPress Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu to display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar menu, we recommend configuring your Links feature first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your active 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 your sidebar navigation area …
(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 Links Widgets To The Sidebar Section)
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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your widget will become immediately visible on the sidebar …
(External links added to WordPress 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 lists of links to the WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series on how to use WordPress widgets.
To keep reading, click here:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum