In Part 1 of this tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial we will continue configuring other frequently-used sidebar widgets.
Add A Categories Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure Categories.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar menu by default. Place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Post Categoriessection inside your WP dashboard …
(Categories)
Note: We plan to create a separate tutorial about how to configure and use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the length of the 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)
- Leave the other options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save when finished …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how the content will look to 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 box, otherwise leave this section as is.
- 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 Your Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget is typically added to your sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on its widget title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s really very little to configure. You can add a title, select the number of posts to display and display post dates. If you want to use the default Number of posts to show setting, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter a number of posts to show and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will appear on your sidebar navigation area …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar)
For a step-by-step tutorial on how to create and edit WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A WP Post
Adding A Pages Widget
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 active widget area …
(Inserting 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 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 the sidebar (3) …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages will be listed by title in alphabetical order. If you want to display pages using another option, then select a different method from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – item sorting options)
To prevent pages from showing in the widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – exclude pages by ID)
A tutorial is provided on finding a WordPress post or page ID here: How To Locate The Page Or Post ID In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to the blog’s pages will now appear in your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display separate groups of pages on the sidebar navigation section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your WordPress Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a Links widget that will display external links on the WordPress sidebar.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar navigation area, you will first need to configure the Links section inside the dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to configure and use the Links feature in WordPress.
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 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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar Navigation Section)
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. Your widget will display immediately on your sidebar navigation section …
(External links added to 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 link lists to your WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of part 3 of this series of tutorials on using WordPress widgets.
To keep reading, click this link:
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