Tag: Using Widgets

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

In this section we will continue configuring other commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.

Adding Categories To Your Blog Sidebar

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

The Categories widget already 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 your sidebar area …

(Post Categories widget)

your categories …

(Post Categories)

Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use WordPress post categories.

Let’s configure your categories settings as described below:

• In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
• Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of your content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (2)
• 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 …

(WordPress Categories widget settings)

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

(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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 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 displays on the sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.

Click on the Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …

(Recent Posts WordPress widget)

There is really very little to configure in this widget. You can add a 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 change the number of posts and click Save when done …

(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)

The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will display on the sidebar …

(Recent Posts widget displayed on blog sidebar)

For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post

Add A Pages Widget

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

Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Pages Widget)

Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …

(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation menu)

The Pages widget lets you 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 page ID. (2)
• Exclude: Hide selected pages 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 – sorting options)

To prevent pages from displaying to visitors, type in the Page Ids for the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …

(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)

To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Locate The ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts

Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.

Links to the blog’s pages will now show on your sidebar navigation section …

(Pages Widget on sidebar)

Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you need to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)

Display Links On Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Section

Next, we’ll add a widget for displaying external links on your sidebar area.

Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar menu, you should first configure your Links section inside your dashboard …

(WordPress Links section)

Note: Setting up WordPress Links will be explained in separate tutorials.

To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Links Widget)

Drag it 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 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 The Sidebar Navigation Section)

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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …

(External 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 link lists to the WordPress sidebar.

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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial.

Click on this link to read Part 4:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Site – Part Four

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