In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
Adding Categories To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on the sidebar menu.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar menu. (2)
- Leave the remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or reload your page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your 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 box, otherwise leave this section as is.
- 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 Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget is added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to configure in this widget. 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 setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
We provide a tutorial about how to create and edit a post in WordPress here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation section to display the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (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 hide 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you would like to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The Unique ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now appear in your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar menu. This is handy if you would like to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a Links widget that will display external links on the sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar area, we recommend setting up your Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide step-by-step tutorials on how to configure and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your active 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 the sidebar section …
(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 WordPress Links Widgets To Your Sidebar)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(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 link lists to the sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
To keep reading, click this link:
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