In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial, we explained how to use widgets in WordPress and in Part 2, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other WordPress widgets.
Add Categories To The Blog Sidebar
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a support button, let’s configure your Categories.
By default, the Categories widget already displays on your sidebar area. Place the widget wherever you want your post categories to display by clicking and dragging it on your sidebar widget area …
(Post Categories widget)
Before adding a Categories widget to your sidebar, we recommend configuring your Categoriesfeature inside your WP dashboard …
(Categories Screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on how to set up post categories in WordPress.
Configure your categories settings as described below:
- In Title: type something that visitors will understand, for example, “Choose A Topic…” (1)
- If you plan to add several categories, check Display as dropdown (this significantly reduces the size of your widget content by displaying all categories in a drop-down menu). Leave the box unchecked if you want a list of all categories to display on the 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 when done …
(Configuring a Categories widget)
Click Visit Site or reload your 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 box unticked.
- 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 Widget
The Recent Posts widget typically appears on the sidebar navigation area by default. All you need to do is configure your widget.
Click on your Recent Posts widget title bar to display the configuration settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There is very little to set up in this widget. You can add a widget title, 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 change the number of posts and click Save …
(Recent Posts widget settings)
Your most recent posts will be listed on your sidebar navigation menu …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget on sidebar section)
For a tutorial about how to create WordPress Posts, go here: How To Create A New Post In WordPress
Add Links To Your Site’s Pages
Next, let’s add a widget to your sidebar for listing pages.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(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: Hide pages on the 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 exclude pages from displaying to your visitors, just paste in the Page Ids for all the pages you want to exclude separated by commas into the Exclude field …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – exclude pages)
For a tutorial about how to find a WordPress post or page ID, go here: How To Locate The Unique ID Of Any WordPress Page Or Post
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to the main pages will now appear in your sidebar …
(WordPress Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you would like to display different page groups on your sidebar area (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add A Links Widget To Your Blog Sidebar Section
Now, we’ll add a Links widget for displaying external links on the WordPress sidebar.
Before adding the Links widget to the sidebar section, you will first need to configure your Links section inside the WP dashboard …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We are currently putting together tutorials on setting up and using the Links feature in WordPress.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Links Widget)
Drag the Links 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 …
(WordPress Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to your sidebar section 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 Area)
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 …
(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 link lists to the sidebar navigation area.
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This is the end of section three of this tutorial series on using Widgets.
Click here to view Part Four:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum