In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will learn how to configure other commonly-used widgets.
How To Add A Categories Widget
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar navigation area.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your your WordPress post categories …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: Using WordPress post categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (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 when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your Categories widget will look to your blog readers …
(Categories widget added to sidebar 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 box, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- 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 Recent Posts To The Blog Sidebar Area
The Recent Posts widget is added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really very little to set up here. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
Creating and editing a WordPress Post is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s 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 widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (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: Hide selected 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 another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from showing on the widget, simply type the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
A tutorial is provided on finding a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate A WP Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now display on your sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar area. This is helpful if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to display external links on the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section, you should first configure the Links section inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(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 menu …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar navigation section 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 Navigation Section)
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 …
(External 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 menu.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to access the rest of this tutorial series:
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