In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section we are going to show you how to configure other commonly-used WordPress blog widgets.
Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar navigation section. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Categoriesfeature first …
(Categories)
Note: Setting up and using WordPress categories will be covered in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories widget 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 size of the widget content by displaying all categories in 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 the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh the page to see how your Categories widget will look to visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar 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 typically shows on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to set up in this widget. You can add a 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 when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A tutorial is provided on creating and editing posts in WordPress here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar showing links to your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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) …
(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 …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in your widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on how to find a page ID in WordPress here: How To Locate A Post Or Page ID In Your WP Blog
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now display on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is useful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar Section
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links section inside the WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your active area …
(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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Area)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(WordPress 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 your Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to 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 the WordPress sidebar menu.
***
This is the end of section three of this tutorial.
To continue, click this link:
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)