In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget for Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar navigation area. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure categories in WordPress.
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 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 unchecked. (2)
- Leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your sidebar categories 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 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 section by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to set up. You can add a title if you want, 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar section)
We provide a tutorial on how to create and edit a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget To The Blog Sidebar Section
Next, we’ll 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 active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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) …
(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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing in the widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for all 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 step-by-step tutorial: Finding WordPress Post And Page IDs
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now show on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation section. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget that will display external links on your WordPress sidebar navigation menu.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure the Links feature inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Using Links will be covered in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(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 navigation area …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar area 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 Area)
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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your widget will become immediately visible on your site …
(Links added to 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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar navigation section.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial on using Widgets.
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