In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other frequently-used blog widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar navigation menu, you will first need to configure your Post Categoriesfeature inside the WP dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: Using categories in WordPress will be explained in other tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of the 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 unticked. (2)
- 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)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to 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 section as is.
- 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 Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to set up here. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on blog sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display your site’s main pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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 pages on your sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying on your widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find The ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now show in the sidebar section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar menu. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Sidebar Area
Next, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar section that displays external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section, we recommend configuring the Links section inside your dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring and using 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 Links 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 area …
(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 …
(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 sidebar navigation menu)
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 lists of links to the sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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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