In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other commonly-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar area.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar area by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your categories …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up categories in WordPress.
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 plan to have several categories (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 unticked. (2)
- Leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how your Categories widget will display to your site 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, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s very little to configure. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 a number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on the sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
Creating and editing a WordPress Post is covered in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar menu for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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 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 one of the other options, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from showing to visitors, type in the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: Finding The WordPress Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now show on your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display different groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Sidebar Section
Next, let’s add a Links widget to display external links on the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend configuring the Links feature inside your WordPress dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress Links will be explained in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 the sidebar …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar area 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to sidebar navigation section)
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.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial.
To view Part Four, click here:
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