In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used WordPress blog widgets.
Adding A Categories Section To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar navigation area by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
your your WordPress post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on using post categories in WordPress.
Configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the 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 to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how the content will display to your 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 section as is.
- 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 Section To Your Sidebar Navigation Area
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is not much to set up here. You can add a title if you want, 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 when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will appear on your sidebar area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on how to create a post in WordPress here: How To Create A New WP Post
Adding Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar navigation section)
The Pages widget allows you to 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 displaying on the sidebar (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 select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing in your sidebar, type in the Page Ids for the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a WordPress page ID is covered here: How To Locate WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now show in the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation menu. This is helpful if you need to display different groups of pages on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a widget that will display external links on your WordPress sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we first recommend configuring your Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide step-by-step tutorials about how to configure Links.
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 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 the sidebar …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar navigation section 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. Your widget will display immediately on your site …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation area)
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 WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
To keep reading, click this link:
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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