Tag: Using Widgets

In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.

In this tutorial we will continue configuring other widgets.

How To Add A Post Categories Section To The Sidebar Menu

Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Post Categories on the sidebar.

The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …

(WordPress Categories widget)

your post categories …

(Categories Panel)

Note: Setting up and using categories in WordPress will be explained in separate tutorials.

Configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:

• In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
• If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar menu. (2)
• Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
• Click Save to update your settings …

(WordPress Categories widget settings)

Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your content will display to your blog readers …

(Categories widget added to sidebar menu)

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 section as is.
• To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …

(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)

Add A Recent Posts Widget To Your Blog Sidebar

The Recent Posts widget normally displays in your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.

Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings …

(Recent Posts widget)

There is really very little to set up in this widget. You can add a 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save …

(Recent Posts widget settings)

Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …

(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar)

We provide a tutorial on how to create and edit a WordPress Post here: How To Create A Post In WordPress

Display Your Site’s Pages

Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu for listing pages.

Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …

(WordPress Pages Widget)

Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …

(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation area)

The Pages widget lets you 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: Prevent pages from being visible 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 …

(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)

To exclude certain pages from displaying in your widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …

(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)

A tutorial is provided on how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find A WordPress Page Or Post ID

Click the Save button when finished 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 section …

(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)

Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is useful if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)

Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar

Next, we’ll add a widget to display external links on the sidebar navigation menu.

Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up your Links section inside the dashboard first …

(WordPress Links screen)

Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to set up WordPress Links.

To add the widget, select 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 the sidebar …

(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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Section)

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 the Links Widget, click the Save button …

(Links added to sidebar)

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 navigation section.

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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.

To continue, click here:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To The Website – Part 4

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