Tag: Widgets

In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.

In this section we will continue configuring other WordPress sidebar widgets.

Add Post Categories To Your Blog Sidebar

Now that you have set up a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.

By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …

(Post Categories widget)

your post categories …

(Post Categories)

Note: We plan to create separate tutorials that show you how to use WordPress post categories.

Configure your categories settings as shown below:

• In Title: type something that blog readers will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
• If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your widget 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 default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
• Click Save to update your settings …

(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)

Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to site visitors …

(Categories widget added to sidebar menu)

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 section as is.
• 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

The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.

Click on your Recent Posts title bar to display the configuration settings …

(Recent Posts widget)

There’s very little to set up here. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy 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 when done …

(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)

Your most recent posts will appear on the sidebar …

(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)

We provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit posts in WordPress here: How To Create A WordPress Post

Add Links To Your Site’s Main Pages

Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar section for listing pages.

Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …

(WordPress Pages Widget)

Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …

(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar navigation area)

The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:

• Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Information“) (1)
• Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
• Exclude: Hide pages on your sidebar navigation area (3) …

(Pages Widget settings)

By default, pages are displayed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then choose a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …

(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)

To exclude pages from showing to visitors, type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …

(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)

We provide a tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID here: How To Find The ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts

Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.

Links to your pages will now show in the sidebar …

(Pages Widget on sidebar)

Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar section. This is useful if you need to display separate groups of pages on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)

Add A Links Widget

Now, we’ll add a Links widget that will display external links on the sidebar navigation section.

Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your Links section first …

(WordPress Links screen)

Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up and using the Links feature in WordPress.

To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …

(Links Widget)

Drag the Links widget to your sidebar area …

(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 the sidebar …

(Links Widget Settings)

You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 Menu)

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 navigation 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 lists of links to the sidebar menu.

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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials on how to use Widgets.

To view Part 4, click this link:

• How To Add Widgets To WordPress – Part Four

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