In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used WordPress blog widgets.
Adding Categories
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar menu. All you have to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your your WordPress post categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to provide a separate tutorial that explains how to use categories.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 your sidebar. (2)
- Leave the remaining options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how the content will look to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation menu)
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 section as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section To The Blog Sidebar Section
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar navigation menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really not much to set up. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will appear on the sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A New WP Post
Displaying Your Site’s Pages In The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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: Prevent pages from showing on the sidebar navigation area (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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing in the widget, just paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Find WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now display on the sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar menu. This is helpful if you would like to display different page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The Sidebar
Now, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section, you will first need to configure the Links feature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create tutorials about how to use the Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 your sidebar 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 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar 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 lists of links to your sidebar.
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This is the end of part three 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