In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other default blog widgets.
How To Add A Categories Widget To The Sidebar Area
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar menu. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar area, you should first configure your categories inside the WP dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: Using categories in WordPress will be covered in other tutorials.
Configure your categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to add 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 as the default, 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 refresh your page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your blog readers …
(Categories widget added to sidebar menu)
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, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section
The Recent Posts widget is added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to configure. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with 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)
The number of posts you have specified will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar area)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New WP Post
Add A Pages Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Site Info“) (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) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing in your sidebar, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: Finding WordPress Post And Page IDs
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now display in the sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation section. This is helpful if you would like to display different groups of pages on the sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links feature inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar 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 area …
(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 WordPress Links Widgets To The 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 the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will become immediately visible on your WordPress sidebar …
(External links added to 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 three of this tutorial.
Click here to view the rest of this tutorial series:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)