In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section we will continue configuring other default WordPress blog widgets.
How To Add A Categories Section
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar area by default. All you have 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 Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar navigation menu, you should first configure your categories inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar navigation area. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the content will display 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 on your site, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget is typically added to the sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on its widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really not much to set up here. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with the default Number of posts to show setting, 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 appear on the sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit a WordPress Post, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s 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 allows you to 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 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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, just paste in the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
Finding a post or page ID in WordPress is explained here: Finding The WordPress Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation section. This is useful if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your active area …
(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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 WordPress Links Widgets To Your 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. Your widget will become immediately visible on your sidebar section …
(External 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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link 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