In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other frequently-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories To The Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Categories)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to configure and use post categories in WordPress.
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 add many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the widget 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 your sidebar section. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your Categories widget will look to your visitors …
(WordPress 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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- 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 The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on its widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s not much to set up. You can add a title if you want, 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on blog sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit a WordPress Post, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area for listing pages.
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 navigation section)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on the 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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying to your visitors, just type the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
Finding a WordPress post or page ID is covered here: How To Locate The WordPress Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is useful if you would like to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar menu that will display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar area, we first recommend configuring the Links feature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Setting up the WordPress Links feature will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the widget 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 your sidebar navigation menu …
(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 Section)
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 your Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your widget will become immediately visible on your site …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation section)
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 lists of links to the WordPress sidebar area.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)