In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this section we will continue configuring other frequently-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar section.
The Categories widget already displays on the sidebar section 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 the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar navigation section, we recommend configuring your Categoriesfeature first …
(WordPress Categories Screen)
Note: Configuring categories in WordPress will be covered in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that blog readers 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 unticked. (2)
- You can leave the remaining options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your web browser or reload your page to see how your content will display to your visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar)
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 box, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- 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
The Recent Posts widget displays in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to set up here. You can add a widget title, 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you’ve specified will display on your sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on blog sidebar)
Creating and editing a post in WordPress is explained in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Pages
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 sidebar widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Pages“) (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 your sidebar (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from showing to visitors, simply enter the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
We provide a tutorial about how to find a WordPress page ID here: Finding The WP Post Or Page ID
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the main pages will now show on the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Sidebar Menu
Next, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar that will display external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring and using WordPress Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the 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 your sidebar navigation menu …
(WordPress 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 …
(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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar)
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 your sidebar menu.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials.
To view Part 4, click this link:
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