In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you will configure other sidebar widgets.
Add A Categories Widget
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar section. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, you should first configure your Post Categoriessection inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We plan to create tutorials on how to use WordPress post categories.
Configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how the Categories widget will look to your site visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar 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 box, otherwise leave this option as is.
- 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 The Sidebar Navigation Area
The Recent Posts widget typically displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to set up in this widget. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and 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 change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on the sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
We provide a tutorial on how to create posts in WordPress here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation area to display page links.
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 the sidebar area)
The Pages widget allows you to 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing 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 another option, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from showing on your widget, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
For a tutorial on how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: Finding A WP Page Or Post ID
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your site’s pages will now display in the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar menu. This is useful if you want to display different groups of pages on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The WordPress Sidebar Area
Next, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar that displays links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up your Links feature first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your sidebar …
(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 your sidebar section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar navigation 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 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to 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 the sidebar.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial on using WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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