In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other default sidebar widgets.
Add Post Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar menu by default. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar menu, we recommend first configuring your Categoriessection inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: Configuring WordPress categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure your categories settings as described 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 size of your widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unchecked. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how your Categories widget will display to your 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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget normally displays in the sidebar navigation section 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 is 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 enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
How to create and edit WordPress Posts is covered here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on your sidebar (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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying on your widget, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial on how to find a WordPress post or page ID here: Finding The WordPress Page Or Post ID
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is handy if you want to display different groups of pages on the sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The WordPress Sidebar
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend first configuring your Links feature inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 …
(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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar)
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 …
( 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 become immediately visible on your WordPress sidebar 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 lists of links to the sidebar navigation menu.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to keep reading:
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