In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section we will continue configuring other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Categories Widget To Your Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
your categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up WordPress categories.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to add several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on your 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 …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the content will display 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 option as is.
- 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 Section To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally appears on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really not much to configure in this widget. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you’re happy 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar area)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages In Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar menu 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 the sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (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 hide pages on your sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from showing on the widget, just paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a WordPress post or page ID is explained in this tutorial: How To Locate The ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
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 display on your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you need to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The Sidebar Navigation Section
Now, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu to display external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar section, we recommend setting up the Links section inside your WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar 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 the sidebar …
(WordPress 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 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 to update your settings. Your widget 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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series on how to use WordPress widgets.
To view Part Four, click this link:
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