In Part 1 of this tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other widgets.
Add Categories To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation section, we recommend configuring your Post Categoriessection inside your dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to create tutorials about how to set up post categories.
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 have many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 unchecked. (2)
- You can leave the other options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when done …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Click Visit Site or refresh the page to see how your sidebar categories will display to your blog readers …
(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 option, otherwise leave this box unchecked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Section To Your Sidebar Menu
The Recent Posts widget is added to the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is not much to configure in this widget. 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 now display to visitors on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on blog sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to configure the following options:
- 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 page ID. (2)
- Exclude: Use this setting to prevent pages from showing 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 select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To exclude pages from displaying on the widget, type or paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
Finding a WordPress post or page ID is explained here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of A WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the pages will now appear on the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation area. This is useful if you would like to display separate page groups on your sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On Your WordPress Sidebar
Next, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, we recommend setting up the Links section inside the WP dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials about how to set up the WordPress Links feature.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 …
(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 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 …
(External 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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar menu.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials.
To keep reading, click this link:
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