In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for Post Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your categories first …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: Setting up WordPress categories will be explained in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length 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 unchecked. (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)
Load the site in your browser or reload your page to see how the Categories widget will look to site visitors …
(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 on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget
The Recent Posts widget normally shows in your sidebar section by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to configure. You can add a widget title, 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 WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on blog sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating and editing a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget To Your Sidebar
Next, we’ll 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 …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar menu (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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from showing to visitors, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Locate WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the site’s pages will now display on the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to display external links on your WordPress sidebar section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar menu, we recommend setting up the Links feature inside your dashboard first …
(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 …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(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 your 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 …
( 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 widget will become immediately visible on your site …
(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 the sidebar navigation menu.
***
This is the end of section 3 of this series of tutorials.
Click on this link to continue reading:
***
"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