In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
Add Categories To Your Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on the sidebar section.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation menu, you will first need to configure your Categoriesfeature inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials that show you how to configure categories.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (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 …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how your content will look to blog readers …
(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 on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to configure in this widget. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy to use 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 widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar section)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial that explains how to create posts in WordPress here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display your site’s pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to hide pages on your sidebar (3) …
(WordPress 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 exclude certain pages from showing in your widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: How To Locate WordPress Post And Page IDs
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your main pages will now appear on the sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is handy if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for displaying external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Configuring and using WordPress Links will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the 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 the sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 The Sidebar)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on the sidebar …
(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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series.
To view Part 4, click this link:
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