In Part 1 of this step-by-step 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 sidebar widgets.
Adding Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use WordPress categories.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of your widget 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 your sidebar navigation menu. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your Categories widget will look 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 unticked.
- 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 Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really very little to configure in this widget. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on blog sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit a WordPress Post, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A WordPress Post
Adding Links To Your Site’s Main Pages In The Sidebar Navigation Area
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar menu)
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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on the sidebar menu (3) …
(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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in your sidebar, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on finding a WordPress post or page ID here: How To Find WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now display on the sidebar area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is helpful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your Sidebar
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar section, we recommend configuring your Links feature inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to create a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up and use WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the 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 your sidebar …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar menu 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 Navigation 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 …
( 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 …
(External 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 link lists to the sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
Click here to keep reading:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum