In Part One of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other commonly-used blog widgets.
Adding Categories To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure your Categories.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your your WordPress categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use WordPress post categories.
Configure the Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 unchecked. (2)
- You can leave the other options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or reload your page to see how the content will display to your blog readers …
(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 option, 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 Sidebar Menu
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is not much to set up. 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 WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will display on your sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display the pages on your site.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “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 (3) …
(WordPress 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 in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To exclude pages from showing in your widget, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on finding a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find A Page Or Post ID In Your WP Blog
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 pages will now display on your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is handy if you would like to display separate page groups on the sidebar navigation menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar menu.
Before adding the Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend first configuring the Links section inside your WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: Configuring WordPress Links will be explained in other tutorials.
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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your 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 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your widget will display immediately on your site …
(Links added to WordPress sidebar navigation 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.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series.
Click on this link to continue:
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