In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section we will continue configuring other WordPress widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar section by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we first recommend setting up your categories inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to set up post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget content by displaying all categories in 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 other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your 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 box unticked.
- 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 Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to the sidebar section by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to set up here. You can add a title if you want, 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)
The number of posts you have specified will be listed on your sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
For a tutorial on how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Pages In Your Sidebar Menu
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to hide pages on your sidebar section (3) …
(WordPress 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 select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing on your widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Locate The ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display different groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The Sidebar Navigation Menu
Next, let’s add a widget for displaying external links on the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up your Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Setting up the Links feature in WordPress will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your active 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 menu …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 Menu)
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 …
(External links added to WordPress 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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar.
***
This is the end of section 3 of this series of tutorials on how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to access the rest of this tutorial:
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie