In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure a text widget.
In this section we will continue configuring other default sidebar widgets.
How To Add Categories
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for displaying Categories on the sidebar.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend setting up your post categories inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Screen)
Note: Configuring and using WordPress post categories will be explained in other tutorials.
Let’s configure the Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to use many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length 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 unticked. (2)
- Leave the default settings for the remaining options, 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 content will display to site visitors …
(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 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 A Recent Posts Section To Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget normally shows on your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on the title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s very little to configure. You can add a title if you want, 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 widget settings)
Your most recent posts will now display to visitors on the sidebar menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating a WordPress Post here: How To Create A WP Post
Display Your Site’s Main Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar area for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar area)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to the widget (e.g. “Site Info“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or by page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing on your sidebar navigation area (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using one of the other options, then select a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from displaying on your widget, enter the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
How to find a post or page ID in WordPress is covered in this step-by-step tutorial: How To Find The ID Of A Page Or Post In A WordPress Blog
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your site’s pages will now appear in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation area. This is useful if you want to display separate page groups on the sidebar navigation area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to the WordPress sidebar navigation area that will display external links (e.g. to useful resources, affiliate links, etc).
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Configuring and using WordPress Links will be covered in other tutorials.
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 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 your sidebar navigation area …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 become immediately visible on your site …
(External links added to sidebar section)
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 WordPress sidebar navigation menu.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To view Part 4, click here:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)