In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Adding A Post Categories Section To The Sidebar
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar menu. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your categories first …
(WordPress Post Categories Panel)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on using post categories in WordPress.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of your content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- Leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how the sidebar categories will look to site visitors …
(WordPress 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, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally appears in the sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to set up. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and opt to 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 change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
How to create a WordPress Post is covered in this tutorial: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you 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 the 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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent pages from displaying in the sidebar, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: Finding A WordPress Page Or Post ID
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 main pages will now display in your sidebar navigation section …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to the sidebar navigation area that displays external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar menu, you will first need to configure the Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials on how to use WordPress Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget 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 section …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar 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 Your 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 …
(External links added to sidebar navigation menu)
As the above example shows, you can display specific external links to your site visitors (e.g. a list for a specific link category only), and add multiple lists of links to your sidebar.
***
This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
To continue, click here:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum