In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
Add Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on the sidebar navigation menu.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar by default. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
your categories …
(Categories)
Note: Setting up post categories in WordPress will be covered in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to use several categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget 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 unticked. (2)
- You can leave the remaining options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your content will display to 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 on your site, enable 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 is normally added to the sidebar navigation section by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to set up. 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 to use 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
We provide a tutorial that explain how to create a post in WordPress here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar section to display the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (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) …
(WordPress 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 select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from showing to your visitors, type in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
We provide a tutorial that show you how to find a page ID in WordPress here: 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 the widget.
Links to your pages will now appear on your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar Area
Now, let’s add a widget that will display external links on your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide a separate step-by-step tutorial about how to configure the Links feature.
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 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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 The 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar section …
(External links added to sidebar section)
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 your WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series.
To view the rest of this tutorial, 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