In Part One 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 section you are going to configure other commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add Post Categories To The Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget for Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar navigation section by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your Categoriessection inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to add several categories (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 the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your site visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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 box, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget To The Sidebar Navigation Section
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in your sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to set up here. 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 the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar navigation section)
How to create WordPress Posts is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Adding A Pages Widget To The Sidebar
Next, we’ll 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 widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying on your sidebar, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
Finding a WordPress page ID is covered here: How To Locate WordPress Page And Post 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 blog’s pages will now show in the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar Section
Now, let’s add a widget to the sidebar navigation menu that displays links to external resources.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar navigation menu, you will first need to configure the Links section inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your sidebar …
(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 …
(WordPress 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 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 links will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar area)
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 lists of links to the WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
Click on this link to keep reading:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum