In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
Add Post Categories To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar navigation menu by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure your Categoriessection inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: Configuring and using WordPress categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “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). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar navigation section. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how the Categories widget will display to your 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 option, otherwise leave this option as is.
- 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 A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget typically displays in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to set up. 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 widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will be listed on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar navigation section)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to create a WordPress Post here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar section)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on your sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying on your widget, enter the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
How to find a page ID in WordPress is covered in this tutorial: How To Locate A Page Or Post ID In A WordPress Site
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your pages will now appear on your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Blog Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget to the WordPress sidebar menu that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we first recommend configuring the Links feature inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links 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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar 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 The 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 …
( 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 your site …
(Links added to WordPress 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 your WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To view Part Four, click here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)