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 text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other commonly-used widgets.
Add A Post Categories Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar navigation menu. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up and using categories in WordPress.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors 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 unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the remaining options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how the Categories widget will look to site visitors …
(WordPress 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 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 A Recent Posts Widget To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is really very little to configure. 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 a number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar area)
To learn how to create a WordPress Post, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To The Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display the pages on your site.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(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. “Useful Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to hide pages on the sidebar section (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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from showing in your sidebar, simply paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on finding a WordPress page ID here: How To Find A Post Or Page ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now show on your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar menu. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar section, you should first configure the Links feature inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on how to configure and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar area …
(Making Links Widget active)
The Links 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 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 Your 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on your site …
(External links added to sidebar)
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 the WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
Click here to continue:
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