In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other default widgets.
How To Add Post Categories
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable help button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories on your sidebar.
The Categories widget displays on the sidebar by default. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it in your sidebar area …
(WordPress Categories widget)
your categories …
(Post Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials that show you how to configure and use WordPress post categories.
Let’s configure your Categories widget settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that your visitors will understand, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you plan to add many categories (this significantly reduces the length of your 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 your sidebar area. (2)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring the Categories widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how your content will look to your 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 box, 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 Area
The Recent Posts widget typically shows in your sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on the Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is really very little to set up. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and opt to display post dates. If you want to use the default setting for Number of posts to show, then just leave the widget as is, otherwise enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to blog sidebar)
We provide a tutorial on how to create posts in WordPress here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add A Pages Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
Next, let’s 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 widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to your sidebar)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following options:
- Title: Add a title to display above your links (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 navigation menu (3) …
(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 showing in your sidebar, type in the Page Ids for all the pages you would like excluded separated by commas into the Exclude field of the widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
To learn how to find a WordPress post or page ID, see this step-by-step tutorial: How To Locate The Post Or Page ID In A WP Blog
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s pages will now appear on the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar navigation menu. This is handy if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your WordPress Sidebar Menu
Now, let’s add a Links widget to your sidebar area.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar, we recommend configuring the Links feature inside your dashboard first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: Configuring and using Links will be covered in separate tutorials.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag it 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 …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar navigation menu 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 Your Sidebar Menu)
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 …
( Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on your WordPress sidebar section …
(External links added to sidebar)
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 lists of links to the sidebar.
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This is the end of section 3 of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
Click on this link to continue reading:
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