In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other default widgets.
Adding A Categories Section
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display your Post Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar menu by default. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your post categories inside the WordPress dashboard …
(Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure WordPress post categories.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your widget 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 default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the content will look to 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 section 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 Area
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you’re happy 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 widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on your sidebar area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
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 area …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget allows you to 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: Use this setting to hide pages on your sidebar (3) …
(WordPress 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 select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying on your sidebar, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
For a tutorial on how to find a WordPress page ID, go here: How To Find The Page Or Post ID In WordPress
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 pages will now show in your sidebar section …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar menu. This is useful if you would like to display different groups of pages on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Now, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar for displaying external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar section, we recommend setting up the Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Configuring the Links feature in WordPress will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it to your active 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 navigation menu …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation menu 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 …
( 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 become immediately visible on your site …
(Links added to sidebar navigation menu)
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.
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This is the end of section 3 of this series of tutorials.
To view Part 4, click here:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now