In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other WordPress widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Widget
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar section. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation section, we recommend configuring your Post Categoriessection first …
(Categories)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials about configuring and using categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the 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 this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the content will display to blog readers …
(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 section as is.
- 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 Recent Posts To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays on your sidebar navigation section by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really very little to set up in this widget. You can add a widget title, 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 change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on how to create and edit a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget To Your Sidebar Area
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- 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 page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing to visitors, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: 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 the blog’s main pages will now show on the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you would like to display different page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure your Links feature inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on how to set up WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar menu 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
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 your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial about using WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue reading:
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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