In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other frequently-used widgets.
Add Post Categories To The Sidebar Navigation Menu
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation section, we first recommend configuring your categories inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: Setting up and using post categories in WordPress will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories in 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 remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how the sidebar categories will look to your 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 option as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section
The Recent Posts widget normally appears on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s very little to set up. 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 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)
The number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a WordPress Post, go here: How To Create A WP Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar menu to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Dragging and dropping 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. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar navigation area (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from showing to visitors, enter the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
For a tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: How To Find The Unique ID Of A WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now show in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you need to display different page groups on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar Menu
Next, let’s add a widget to the sidebar navigation menu to display external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links section inside your WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to create tutorials about how to configure Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the 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 …
(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 …
( WordPress 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 section.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click this link:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum