In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other default WordPress sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Categories Section To The Sidebar Section
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your post categories inside the WordPress dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up categories in WordPress.
Configure your Categories widget settings as shown 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 size of the 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 remaining options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how your sidebar categories will look to blog readers …
(Categories widget added to sidebar section)
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, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to configure in this widget. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you’re happy with 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 when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to blog sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on how to create a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WP Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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 pages on the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed 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 …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying to your visitors, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find The Unique ID Of Posts And Pages In Your WordPress Website
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now display in your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation menu. This is useful if you would like to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar Navigation Section
Now, let’s add a widget to display external links on your sidebar navigation area.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate step-by-step tutorials on how to configure and use Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your active 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 navigation area …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation 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 Navigation Menu)
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 …
(External links added to sidebar 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 the sidebar menu.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials about using Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click this link:
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