In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other frequently-used WordPress widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar menu.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(Categories widget)
your post categories …
(Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create a separate step-by-step tutorial that explains how to set up post categories.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to have many categories, check Display as dropdown (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 navigation menu. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how the Categories widget will display to blog readers …
(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 box, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- 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 Widget
The Recent Posts widget normally displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s not much to set up in this widget. You can add a widget 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)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar section …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (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 showing on your sidebar menu (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying in your widget, enter the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
Finding a WordPress post or page ID is explained here: How To Locate The ID Of WordPress Posts And Pages
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your pages will now display in your sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is handy if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar menu, you will first need to configure your Links feature inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials that show you 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 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 your sidebar …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation 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 Area)
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 …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar menu)
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 three of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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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