In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other default WordPress widgets.
Add A Post Categories Section
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on the sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar navigation menu. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your post categories inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to set up and use categories in WordPress.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the remaining options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to site visitors …
(WordPress 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 option, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on your sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its 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 want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar navigation section)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Main Pages In Your WordPress Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Info“) (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 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 one of the other options, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing to visitors, simply type the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
Finding a post or page ID in WordPress is covered here: How To Find Post And Page IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now appear on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar area for displaying external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar, you will first need to configure your Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use the WordPress 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 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 Your Sidebar Navigation Area)
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 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 your sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click here to read the rest of this tutorial series:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now