In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Section To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, you will first need to configure your categories inside the dashboard …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up and using categories in WordPress.
Configure your categories settings 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 the widget 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 unticked. (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 Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your Categories widget will look to visitors …
(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 box unchecked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to your sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is very little to set up in this widget. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WP Post
Adding Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar that will link to your site’s main pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your 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 select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying to your visitors, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: How To Locate The Unique 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 main pages will now appear in your sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is handy if you need to display different page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar section, you will first need to configure your Links section inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use 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 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 …
(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 …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar)
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 the WordPress sidebar area.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series about using WordPress widgets.
To view Part 4, click here:
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