In Part One of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other widgets.
Adding Categories To Your Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on the sidebar menu. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring your post categories inside the WordPress dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to use post categories in WordPress.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as shown below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unticked if you want a list of all categories to display on the sidebar. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your web browser or refresh your page to see how the Categories widget will display to blog readers …
(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, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To The Sidebar Navigation Area
The Recent Posts widget displays on the sidebar menu by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on its title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress 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 setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise change the number of posts and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on your sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to sidebar)
How to create a post in WordPress is explained in this tutorial: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Adding A Pages Widget
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 area …
(Adding a Pages widget to the sidebar menu)
The Pages widget allows you to 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 menu (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 – sort options)
To exclude pages from displaying to visitors, type in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: How To Find The ID Of A WordPress Post Or Page
Click the Save button when done and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now display in the sidebar …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is handy if you want to display separate page groups on the sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Display Links On The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a Links widget to the sidebar navigation area.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, you will first need to configure the Links feature inside your WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to provide a separate tutorial if you need help on how to use Links.
To add the widget, select a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the 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 the sidebar menu …
(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)
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 the Links Widget, click the Save button to update your settings. Your links will display immediately on your site …
(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 sidebar navigation section.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial series.
To view the rest of this tutorial series, click here:
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