In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other widgets.
Add Categories To The Sidebar Navigation Menu
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need 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 …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar section, we recommend setting up your categories inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to configure and use post categories in WordPress.
Configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of your content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your site visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 option, 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 is added to your sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s not much to configure. 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar section)
We provide a tutorial about how to create and edit a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New WP Post
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar section to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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 your sidebar (3) …
(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 choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in your sidebar, simply type their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find Page And Post IDs In A WP Blog
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s pages will now appear on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is useful if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar section to display links to external resources.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar section, you will first need to configure the Links section inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Setting up and using Links will be explained in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar …
(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 …
(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 …
(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 the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar section …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar menu)
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 3 of this tutorial series about using WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
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