In Part One 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 tutorial we will continue configuring other sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories To The Sidebar Navigation Menu
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, you will first need to configure your post categories inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to create separate step-by-step tutorials on how to configure and use WordPress post categories.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your Categories widget will display to site 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 Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to set up in this widget. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar section)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to create WordPress Posts here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on the sidebar navigation menu (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing to your visitors, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
We provide a tutorial that shows you how to find a WordPress post or page ID here: How To Find Post And Page IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now display on your sidebar area …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation section. This is useful if you would like to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to the WordPress sidebar navigation section that displays links to external resources.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we first recommend configuring the Links feature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up and using Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the 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 navigation section …
(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 WordPress Links Widgets To The 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 to update your settings. Your widget will become immediately visible on your sidebar navigation area …
(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 the WordPress sidebar.
***
This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series on using WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to view Part 4:
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com