In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other widgets.
Adding A Categories Widget To Your Sidebar Menu
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar menu.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation area by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create tutorials about setting up and using categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 menu. (2)
- You can leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the sidebar categories will look to site visitors …
(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 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 Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally shows on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is very little to configure. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation section for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on the 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in the sidebar, just enter the Page Ids for all the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
Finding a page ID in WordPress is explained in this tutorial: 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 the site’s pages will now display on the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is helpful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar navigation menu to display external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, you will first need to configure the Links feature inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select 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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar area 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 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will become immediately visible on your site …
(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 the WordPress sidebar menu.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series on how to use WordPress widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click this link:
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