In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this section we will continue configuring other commonly-used WordPress widgets.
Adding Categories To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation section. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
your categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress post categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget 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 unchecked. (2)
- Leave the other options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or refresh your page to see how the Categories widget will display to blog readers …
(Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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 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 Recent Posts To The Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really not much to set up. 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 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 widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create a WordPress Post, see this tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding Links To Your Site’s Main Pages In The Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display pages.
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 area)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide pages on your sidebar (3) …
(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 …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying in the sidebar, enter the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
Finding a page ID in WordPress is explained in this tutorial: How To Find WordPress Post And Page IDs
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the site’s main pages will now display on your sidebar section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is helpful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a Links widget for displaying external links on your sidebar section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Using the Links feature will be explained in other tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 menu …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 …
(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 to update your settings. Your links will display immediately on the sidebar …
(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 lists of links to your WordPress sidebar.
***
This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To continue, click here:
***
"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