In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
Add Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar section.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your categories …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use WordPress categories.
Configure your categories settings 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 size of the widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how the content will display to your blog readers …
(WordPress 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 unticked.
- 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 To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally displays in the sidebar section by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to set up. 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 …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on your sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts widget added to blog sidebar)
To learn how to create a WordPress Post, see this tutorial: How To Create A WP Post
Adding Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar menu for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar section)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on your sidebar navigation 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude certain pages from showing on your widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
We provide a tutorial that shows you how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Find The WordPress Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation menu, we recommend setting up your Links feature inside your dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on how to set up the Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 …
(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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Menu)
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 your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your widget will display immediately on your site …
(Links added to WordPress 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 WordPress sidebar navigation section.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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