In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other commonly-used WordPress widgets.
How To Add A Post Categories Section To Your Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on your sidebar.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on configuring post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for your widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the widget content by displaying all categories inside a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar area. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how the content will display to site visitors …
(WordPress 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 box, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is 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 want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial about how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar navigation section to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget area …
(Inserting a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation menu)
The Pages widget lets you 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 page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Prevent pages from being visible on your sidebar navigation area (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 select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, simply type the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on how to find a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The WP Page Or Post 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 blog’s main pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on the sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar area, we recommend first configuring your Links feature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up and use the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it 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 the sidebar …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar 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 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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on the WordPress sidebar …
(External 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 your WordPress sidebar navigation menu.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series.
To view Part Four, click this link:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum