In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to learn how to configure other widgets.
Adding Post Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar navigation menu 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 in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure categories in WordPress.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to have several categories (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)
- 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)
Load the site in your web browser or reload the page to see how your Categories widget will look to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar navigation 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, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget To Your Blog Sidebar Section
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really very little to set up in this widget. 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 with the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to create WordPress Posts here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Useful Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on the sidebar menu (3) …
(WordPress 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 choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, type or paste in the Page Ids for the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on finding a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The ID Of Any WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s main pages will now appear in the sidebar navigation section …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to display external links on the sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar menu, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials about how to configure and use the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the Links widget to your sidebar …
(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 …
(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 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 …
( WordPress 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 area)
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 WordPress sidebar navigation menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series about how to use WordPress widgets.
Click here to continue:
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