In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this section we will continue configuring other WordPress widgets.
Adding Post Categories To Your Sidebar Navigation Menu
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar section. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to set up WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 the sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will look to blog readers …
(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 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 A Recent Posts Section To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to configure in this widget. You can add a 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)
The number of posts you’ve specified will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to blog sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area that links to the pages on your site.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to hide pages on the sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying on the sidebar, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Locate Post And Page IDs In A WP Blog
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now show on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation section. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar
Now, let’s add a Links widget to display external links on the WordPress sidebar menu.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up your Links section inside your WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Using the Links feature in WordPress will be explained in other tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation section 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 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to sidebar navigation area)
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 link lists to the sidebar.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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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