In Part 1 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 section you will learn how to configure other frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your Categoriesfeature first …
(Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring and using post categories in WordPress.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (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 …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how your sidebar categories will look to site visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar navigation area)
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 unchecked.
- 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 displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is not much to set up. You can add a 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 enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will display on the sidebar area …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
For a tutorial on how to create and edit a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation area for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation section)
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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on the sidebar navigation section (3) …
(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 select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying in the sidebar, just type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: Finding A WP Post Or Page ID
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 pages will now appear on your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you want to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar Menu
Next, we’ll add a widget to display external links on your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation menu, you should first configure your Links feature inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: How to set up the WordPress Links feature will be covered in other tutorials.
To add the widget, select 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 your sidebar …
(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 The Sidebar Area)
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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series.
Click here to read Part 4:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now