In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will learn how to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Categories Section To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we first recommend setting up your post categories inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of the content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (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 WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how the content will display to visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar area)
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 unchecked.
- 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
The Recent Posts widget is typically added to the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really not much to set up. You can add a widget title, 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 change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will be listed on your sidebar section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget To Your Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar linking visitors to pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on your sidebar (3) …
(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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying in your widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate Post And Page IDs In Your WordPress Blog
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your site’s pages will now show in your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar area. This is helpful if you need to display different page groups on the sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar menu, we recommend setting up your Links section first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Configuring the Links feature will be covered in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your active area …
(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 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 Menu)
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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your widget will display immediately on the sidebar navigation section …
(Links added to sidebar 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 lists of links to your sidebar.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To continue, click this link:
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