In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other widgets.
Add Categories To The Sidebar Menu
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Categoriessection inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up WordPress categories.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size 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 menu. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your site visitors …
(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, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget normally appears in your sidebar navigation section by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s very little to configure. You can add a widget title, 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to create a post in WordPress here: How To Create A New WP Post
Add A Pages Widget To Your Sidebar Navigation Menu
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on your sidebar navigation section (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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude certain pages from showing to your visitors, just type the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
How to find a WordPress page ID is explained here: Finding WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation menu. This is useful if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar menu.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar …
(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 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 Links Widgets To The Sidebar Navigation Section)
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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to sidebar navigation menu)
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.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series about using WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to continue:
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