In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will configure other default blog widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Section
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the widget 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 the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how your content 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 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 appears on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on blog sidebar)
For a tutorial about how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Pages In Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation section 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 the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from appearing on your 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 certain pages from displaying to visitors, simply enter the Page Ids for all the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
Finding a post or page ID in WordPress is explained here: Finding WordPress Post And Page IDs
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your main pages will now show in your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you want to display different page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget for displaying external links on the WordPress sidebar navigation area.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: How to set up and use WordPress Links will be covered in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar 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 your sidebar navigation section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation menu 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 Area)
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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(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 lists of links to your sidebar navigation menu.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series.
Click here 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