In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section you will configure other frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Adding A Categories Section
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: Setting up post categories in WordPress will be covered in other tutorials.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your widget 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 when finished …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh your page to see how the content will look to site visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar area)
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, enable 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 is normally added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to set up in this widget. 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 Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar navigation section)
For a tutorial on how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A WP Post
Displaying Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar (3) …
(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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent pages from showing in your sidebar, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
A tutorial is provided on finding a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
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 show in the sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your Sidebar Navigation Section
Now, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar area for displaying external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar area, we recommend first setting up your Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Configuring the Links feature will be explained in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(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 navigation section …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 The 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 …
( WordPress 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 display immediately on the sidebar section …
(Links added to sidebar)
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 link lists to the WordPress sidebar menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial on how to use WordPress widgets.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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