In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Section To The Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Post Categories on the sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend first setting up your categories inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to configure and use categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget 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). If you plan to publish posts under a few categories only, then leave the Display as dropdown box unticked. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to your visitors …
(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 box, otherwise leave this option as is.
- 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 A Recent Posts Section
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to set up here. You can add a widget 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A WordPress Post
Adding A Pages Widget To The Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar section to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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 selected pages on your sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying on the sidebar, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Locate 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 the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now appear in the sidebar section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation area. This is helpful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The Sidebar Area
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, you should first configure the Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find 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 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 WordPress Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Section)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will become immediately visible on your site …
(External links added to sidebar)
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 your sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this tutorial series on how to use WordPress widgets.
To continue, click here:
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