In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will configure other sidebar widgets.
Adding A Categories Section
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar section. 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 …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up your Post Categoriesfeature first …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create a separate tutorial about how to set up and use post categories.
Configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the 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 area. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your content will display to your site visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar 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 option, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget displays in the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is not much to set up. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, 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 display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages In Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Menu
Next, let’s 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 sidebar widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from appearing on your sidebar navigation menu (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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing on your sidebar, type in the Page Ids for the pages you want excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find The Post Or Page ID In A WordPress Website
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now show on your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is useful if you need to display different groups of pages on the sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend configuring your Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials about setting up and using the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar area …
(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 navigation menu …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 Links Widgets To The Sidebar)
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. Your widget will become immediately visible on your sidebar navigation section …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation section)
As the above example shows, you can display specific links to your site visitors (e.g. a list for a specific link category only), and add multiple link lists to your sidebar navigation section.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click this link:
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