In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on configuring and using post categories.
Configure the Categories settings for your widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to use many categories (this significantly reduces the size of your 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 unticked. (2)
- You can leave the remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how the Categories widget 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 unchecked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, tick 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 shows in the sidebar navigation section by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really not much to set up. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and 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 WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A New WordPress Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar to display your pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your widget section …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar navigation section)
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: Prevent pages from showing on the sidebar area (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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying on your sidebar, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on finding a post or page ID in WordPress here: How To Find The WordPress Page Or Post ID
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your site’s main pages will now display on the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you want to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links feature inside your WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials about how to 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 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 menu …
(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 Your Sidebar)
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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring the Links Widget, click the Save button …
(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 link lists to your sidebar.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial about how to use Widgets.
To continue reading, click this link:
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