In Part 1 of this step-by-step tutorial series, we explained how to use WordPress widgets and in Part Two, we explained how to configure text widgets.
In this section you are going to learn how to configure other frequently-used WordPress widgets.
Adding Categories
Now that you have configure a text widget containing a clickable contact button, let’s configure a widget to display Post Categories on the sidebar navigation section.
The Categories widget displays on your sidebar by default. All you need to do, therefore, is place this widget wherever you want your 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 categories first …
(Categories)
Note: Configuring and using post categories in WordPress will be covered in separate tutorials.
Configure the Categories settings for this widget as described below:
- In Title: type something that will make sense to visitors, like “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 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)
- You can leave the default settings for the remaining options, or see the additional notes on configuring this widget below.
- Click Save to update your settings …
(Configuring a WordPress Categories widget)
Load the site in your browser or refresh the page to see how your content will display to your visitors …
(Categories widget added to sidebar section)
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 section as is.
- 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 Recent Posts To Your Blog Sidebar
The Recent Posts widget displays on your sidebar area by default. All you need to do is configure this widget.
Click on your Recent Posts title bar to configure its settings …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget)
There’s not much to set up. You can add a title if you want, select the number of posts to display and 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 when done …
(Recent Posts WordPress widget settings)
The number of posts you have specified will now display to visitors on your sidebar area …
(Recent Posts widget added to sidebar)
We provide a step-by-step tutorial about how to create and edit a post in WordPress here: How To Create A WordPress Post
Display Your Site’s Pages
Next, we’ll add a widget to your sidebar to display page links.
Find a Pages widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress Pages Widget)
Drag the Pages widget to your active widget area …
(Dragging and dropping a Pages widget into the sidebar)
The Pages widget allows you to 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 selected pages on your sidebar (3) …
(WordPress 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 from the Sort by: drop-down menu …
(Pages Widget settings – sorting options)
To prevent pages from showing to visitors, just type their Page Ids separated by commas into the Exclude field of the Pages widget …
(WordPress Pages Widget settings – excluding pages by ID)
Finding a post or page ID in WordPress is covered here: How To Find The ID Of Pages And Posts In WordPress
Click the Save button when done and click Close at the bottom of the widget box to minimize your widget.
Links to your blog’s main pages will now display on the sidebar navigation menu …
(Pages Widget on blog sidebar)
Tip: You can add multiple Pages widgets to your sidebar. This is helpful if you want to display different page groups on your sidebar (e.g. “Products”, “Legal Pages” etc.)
Add Links To Your Blog Sidebar
Now, we’ll add a Links widget to your sidebar section.
Before adding a Links widget to the sidebar navigation section, we recommend setting up your Links section first …
(WordPress Links screen)
Note: We plan to provide tutorials on configuring the Links feature.
To add the widget, find a Links widget in the Available Widgets section …
(WordPress 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 your sidebar navigation area …
(Links Widget Settings)
You can add as many separate ‘Link Widgets’ to the 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 WordPress Links Widgets To The Sidebar)
You can sort links by Link title, Link rating, Link ID, or display links in Random order …
(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 the Links Widget, click the Save button. Your links will display immediately on your sidebar navigation menu …
(External links added to WordPress sidebar navigation section)
As the above example shows, you can display specific external 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 about using Widgets.
To continue, click this link:
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