In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Widget
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your Post Categoriessection first …
(Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring and using post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (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 your sidebar section. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh your page to see how your content will display to visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar section)
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, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget normally appears in your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s very little to configure in this widget. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will appear on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
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 sidebar widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Pages“) (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 navigation section (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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying in your widget, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The ID Of Posts And Pages In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now appear in your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation area. This is handy if you need to display different page groups on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: How to set up and use the WordPress Links feature will be covered in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(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 your sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 …
(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 your Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will become immediately visible on your site …
(Links added to sidebar navigation 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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click this link:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)