In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will configure other WordPress blog widgets.
Add Categories
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on the sidebar menu.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar navigation area. Place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring the Post Categoriessection inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Categories Screen)
Note: Setting up categories in WordPress will be covered in other tutorials.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for your widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to use several categories (this significantly reduces the length of the 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. (2)
- You can leave the other options unticked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to visitors …
(WordPress Categories widget added to sidebar 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 option, 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 Widget
The Recent Posts widget 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 is really very little to set up here. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and 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)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on the sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar area)
To learn how to create WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Create A New WP Post
Displaying Your Site’s Pages In Your WordPress Sidebar Navigation Area
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 …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your 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 by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar (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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude certain pages from displaying in the widget, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: Finding WordPress Page And Post IDs
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now show on your sidebar navigation area …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is useful if you need to display separate page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The Sidebar Navigation Area
Next, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend configuring your Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Setting up the WordPress Links feature will be covered in separate tutorials.
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 …
(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 …
(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 navigation section)
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 your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial on using Widgets.
To view the rest of this tutorial, click here:
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