In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to configure other widgets.
How To Add Categories To The Sidebar Section
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar navigation area by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create a separate step-by-step tutorial about how to configure and use post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to add many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 remaining options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how your Categories widget will display to your blog readers …
(Categories widget added to sidebar navigation area)
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 option as is.
- 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
The Recent Posts widget displays in the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really not much to configure. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on blog sidebar)
Creating a WordPress Post is covered here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To The Sidebar Section
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar menu to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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: Prevent pages from showing on your sidebar menu (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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying on your widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: 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 the pages will now display on the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is helpful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar area.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 the sidebar navigation menu …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation 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)
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 …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar menu)
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.
***
This is the end of part three of this tutorial on how to use WordPress widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click here:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group