In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar menu.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar area, we recommend first setting up your post categories inside your dashboard …
(Post Categories Screen)
Note: Configuring WordPress post categories will be covered in separate tutorials.
Configure the 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 plan to have several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 the sidebar area. (2)
- Leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how the content will look 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 section as is.
- 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 Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on the sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really not much to set up in this widget. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget
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 sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- 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: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar section (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed 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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in your sidebar, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: How To Locate WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now display on the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is helpful if you need to display different page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget that will display external links on your WordPress sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend configuring the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to create tutorials about how to configure and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the 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 navigation section …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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)
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 to update your settings. Your links will display immediately on your sidebar navigation area …
(Links added to 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 the WordPress sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series about using Widgets.
Click on this link to view Part 4:
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