In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to configure other default WordPress widgets.
Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on the sidebar section.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar navigation menu by default. Place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your post categories inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “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 in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on your sidebar. (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 …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload the page to see how the Categories widget will display to your site visitors …
(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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- 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
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really not much 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 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 WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar navigation section)
We provide a tutorial that explain how to create and edit a WordPress Post here: How To Create A WP Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar section to display pages.
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 your sidebar section)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- 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: Prevent pages from appearing on the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing to your visitors, type in the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a page ID in WordPress is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find The Unique ID Of Any WordPress Post Or Page
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your main pages will now display in your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is useful if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Blog Sidebar Section
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar area.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section, we recommend setting up the Links feature inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create tutorials that show you how to configure and use the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar 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 your sidebar menu …
(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 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar section)
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 the sidebar menu.
***
This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials about how to use WordPress widgets.
To view Part 4, click this link:
***
"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)