In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Adding A Post Categories Widget To Your Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation area. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
your categories …
(Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar navigation section. (2)
- Leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how your Categories widget will look to blog readers …
(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 box, otherwise leave this section as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you want 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 when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar navigation area)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget To The Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Info“) (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 (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 choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from showing on the widget, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Find A Page Or Post ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now appear on your sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is useful if you need to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget that will display external links on your sidebar section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure the Links section inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Configuring WordPress Links will be explained 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 your sidebar section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on the sidebar …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar menu)
As the above example shows, you can display specific 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 section 3 of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
To continue, click here:
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