In Part One of this tutorial, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, you learned how to configure text widgets.
In this tutorial you will learn how to configure other frequently-used WordPress sidebar widgets.
Add Categories To The Sidebar
Now that you know how to configure a text widget containing a clickable support button, let’s configure a widget to display Categories.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar navigation area by default. All you have to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your categories to display by clicking and dragging it in the sidebar area …
(WordPress Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar area, we recommend first configuring your post categories inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Post Categories)
Note: We plan to create a tutorial about how to set up WordPress post categories.
Configure your Categories widget settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to your visitors, like “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- Check Display as dropdown if you have too many categories (this significantly reduces the size of the 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 your sidebar. (2)
- Leave the remaining options unchecked, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Categories widget settings)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how the Categories widget will look to visitors …
(WordPress 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 option, otherwise leave this option as is.
- To display the number of posts published in each category, enable the Show post counts check box …
(Category widget options – Post Count Enabled vs Post Count Disabled)
Add Recent Posts To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget is normally added to the sidebar by default. All you need to do is configure the widget.
Click on its widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little 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 enter a number of posts to show and click Save when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you’ve specified will appear on the sidebar …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget displayed on sidebar)
A step-by-step tutorial is provided on creating and editing posts in WordPress here: How To Create A Post In WordPress
Displaying Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar menu to display the pages you select.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget section …
(Adding a Pages widget to 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: Prevent pages from being visible on your sidebar (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 – sort options)
To prevent pages from displaying in the widget, enter their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
We provide a tutorial that explains how to find a WordPress page ID here: How To Find The Unique ID Of WordPress Pages And Posts
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 display in your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to the sidebar. This is handy if you need to display separate page groups on the sidebar section (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Sidebar Section
Next, let’s add a widget that will display external links on the sidebar navigation menu.
Before adding a Links widget to your sidebar, we recommend first setting up your Links feature inside the WordPress dashboard …
(WordPress Links section)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on configuring Links.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the widget to your active 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 your sidebar …
(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 WordPress 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 …
( WordPress Links widget: ‘Select Link Category’ drop-down menu)
When you have finished configuring your Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will become immediately visible on your WordPress sidebar …
(Links added to WordPress 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 lists of links to the sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of part three of this tutorial.
To keep reading, click here:
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