In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part 2, we explained how to configure a text widget.
In this tutorial you are going to configure other frequently-used widgets.
Adding Post Categories To Your Sidebar
Now that you have set up a text widget containing a contact button, let’s configure your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget displays on your sidebar area. All you need to do, therefore, is place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on the sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar navigation menu, we recommend setting up the Categoriesfeature inside your dashboard …
(Categories Panel)
Note: We plan to provide separate tutorials on how to configure categories.
Let’s configure your categories settings as shown below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you have too many categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size 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. (2)
- 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 …
(WordPress Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or reload the page to see how your content will display to your 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 option, otherwise leave this box unticked.
- To display the number of posts published in each category on your site, tick the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add A Recent Posts Widget To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget typically appears in the sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on the widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts widget)
There is 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 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 …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
Your most recent posts will display on the sidebar navigation section …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget added to blog sidebar)
To learn how to create and edit WordPress Posts, see this tutorial: How To Create A New WP Post
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages In The WordPress Blog Sidebar
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar navigation menu for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your sidebar widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into your sidebar menu)
The Pages widget lets you configure the following settings:
- 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 section (3) …
(Pages Widget settings)
By default, pages are displayed 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 prevent pages from displaying on your widget, simply type or paste in their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(Pages Widget settings – excluding pages)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of Any WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when finished and then click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize the widget.
Links to your main pages will now appear on the sidebar menu …
(Pages Widget on sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar section. This is helpful if you need to display separate page groups on your sidebar menu (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget
Next, we’ll add a Links widget that will display external links on the WordPress sidebar navigation section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar area, we recommend setting up your Links section first …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We plan to create tutorials on how to configure and use Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(Links Widget)
Drag the 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 area …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar 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 Links Widgets To Your Sidebar)
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 …
(External links added to sidebar navigation 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 the WordPress sidebar.
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This is the end of section three of this series of tutorials on using Widgets.
To view Part 4, click this link:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)