In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other commonly-used sidebar widgets.
How To Add A Categories Section
Now that you know how to set up a text widget containing a help button, let’s configure a widget for your Post Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on the sidebar menu. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
your post categories …
(WordPress Categories)
Note: We plan to create a separate tutorial on how to use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to add many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget 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 navigation menu. (2)
- 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 web browser or refresh the page to see how the Categories widget will display to 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 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 typically shows on the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There’s really very little to set up. You can add a widget title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you’re happy with the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter the number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts widget on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating a WordPress Post here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Display Your Site’s Pages In The Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Inserting a Pages widget into your sidebar menu)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following settings:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (e.g. “Useful Sections“) (1)
- Sort by: Sort how your pages display: by title (i.e. alphabetically), by page order, or page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Hide selected pages on your sidebar (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 choose a different method in the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent certain pages from showing to visitors, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages 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 Unique ID Of Any WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when finished and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your main pages will now show on the sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar navigation section. This is handy if you need to display different page groups on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To The Sidebar
Next, let’s add a widget to your WordPress sidebar navigation menu to display links to external resources.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, you should first configure your Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag it 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 …
(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 Navigation 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 sidebar 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 the WordPress sidebar section.
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This is the end of part three of this series of tutorials.
To continue, click this link:
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