In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other default WordPress widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Widget
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the 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 …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to provide a separate tutorial that shows you how to configure WordPress post categories.
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)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 the sidebar navigation area. (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 WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your Categories widget will look to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 option as is.
- 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 To The Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears in your sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is 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 Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Pages“) (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) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying in the sidebar, simply enter the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial that show you how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Locate Post And Page IDs In WordPress
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation area. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure the Links section inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Using the Links feature in WordPress will be covered in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find 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 the sidebar …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar 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)
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 site …
(Links added to sidebar area)
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 menu.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to view the rest of this tutorial:
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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