In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we are going to show you how to configure other sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Categories Section
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Post Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget already displays on your sidebar area by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up the Post Categoriesfeature first …
(Categories)
Note: Setting up and using categories in WordPress will be covered in separate tutorials.
Let’s configure your categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to have many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 unchecked. (2)
- Leave the remaining options as the default, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh your page to see how your Categories widget will display to site 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, enable 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 is added to the 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 widget)
There’s really very little to set up. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you’re happy with the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The most recent number of posts you have specified will be listed on the sidebar area …
(Recent Posts widget displayed on sidebar)
We provide a tutorial about how to create and edit a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New WP Post
Add A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar area)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Pages“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on the sidebar navigation menu (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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying to your visitors, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this tutorial: How To Find Post And Page IDs In A WordPress Website
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the pages will now display on the sidebar navigation menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is helpful if you want to display different groups of pages on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Sidebar Menu
Now, let’s add a Links widget to the sidebar menu.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar navigation area, we first recommend configuring your Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to create separate tutorials on how to set up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it to your sidebar …
(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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the sidebar navigation 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 …
(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 your 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 the sidebar.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials about how to use Widgets.
To view Part 4, click here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)