In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you will learn how to configure other WordPress sidebar widgets.
Add A Categories Widget To The Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your categories inside the dashboard …
(Post Categories)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on how to use post categories.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, for example, “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). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the sidebar categories will look to 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 option, otherwise leave this section 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
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on its title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really not much 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 with the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on creating WordPress Posts here: How To Create A New WP Post
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages In The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
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 menu)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying to visitors, simply paste in the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the pages will now display on the sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is useful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar navigation menu.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we recommend configuring the Links feature first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the 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 your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 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 …
( WordPress 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 become immediately visible on your site …
(External links added to WordPress 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 lists of links to the sidebar section.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click here:
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