Title: Display Recent Post Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Display Recent Post * [Valerie123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie123/) * (@valerie123) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/) * I’m using the Simpsons theme * (www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/blog1) * And I can’t figure out how to add a “Recent Post” thingy to my left sidebar. * Here’s how the Category one looks *

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  • * I tried a few variations, but does anyone know what I need to do…..before I spend all night plugging in different titles, lol, I’m just not sure of the terminology I need to use, or where I could find it. * Blessings, * Valerie Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [jberghem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jberghem/) * (@jberghem) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-778928) * Valerie, Depending on the version of WordPress you have: * WordPress 2.3 In your admin area go to Presentation -> Widgets. Drag and drop the Recent Post Widget from the bottom area to the desired sidebar. Save Changes! * WordPress 2.5 In your admin area go to Design -> Widgets. Click on the add link on the Recent Posts widget. Save Changes. * If the Simpsons Theme doesn’t have a widgetized sidebar read this article: [http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/](http://automattic.com/code/widgets/themes/) * -John * Thread Starter [Valerie123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie123/) * (@valerie123) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779353) * Thanks for the instructions! I forgot how easy things are with WordPress 2.5! I am still having issues though? * When I added the Recent Posts widget, to the left side, it displays on the site but none of the other stuff is displaying on the sidebar? * So it seems like it’s displaying it, but for some reason it won’t integrate with the other information that I have in my sidebar. * Is that what you meant by if my theme doesn’t have a widgetized sidebar, or is something else going on here? * Valerie * [jberghem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jberghem/) * (@jberghem) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779402) * Not exactly. Each theme that has a widgetized sidebar has a default sidebar which is displayed when no widgets have been added in the widget menu. Once you add one or more widgets they replace the default sidebar altogether. You will have to add the page, archive, calendar, category and recent post widgets etc. to construct your own custom sidebar and in your desired order. (Be happy it only displays the widget you added otherwise you’d be very limited in customizing your sidebar. You wouldn’t be able to remove items in your sidebar you didn’t want.) * If a theme has no widgetized sidebar you will not have the option to add widgets or nothing you add is displayed. You’ll have the default bar and you wouldn’t be able to change it. (unless you edit the sidebar.php file and widgetize it) * Thread Starter [Valerie123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie123/) * (@valerie123) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779412) * Okay, that makes sense now, I was wondering…. * I went ahead and added all the different widgets like you said (worked perfectly thanks!), the only thing is when they display the have a transparent background,( so that my main body background…the blue becomes the background. I’d much rather have them with a white background, so I went through the sidebar css adding * color: #ffffff; * To various data, but none of them seemed to work….so is the widget colors somewhere else, or am I stuck with what ever background I use for my main body? * Thanks for any insight, the widgets are working just fine, I just want to make the colors more attractive 🙂 * Blessings, * Valerie * Thread Starter [Valerie123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie123/) * (@valerie123) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779416) * I’m not sure if this is related or not, but since I started using the widgets, I’ve had about 50 spam comments that weren’t caught by Akismat? It’s been working fine up untill yesterday when I added the widgets? * Strange? * Thread Starter [Valerie123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valerie123/) * (@valerie123) * [17 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779417) * I posted the Akismet thing in a new thread * [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/183848?replies=1#post-786358](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/183848?replies=1#post-786358) * I thought they might be related until I noticed that it was something to do with my API key not validating, so I figured it was separate issue…..but if not, maybe the Mods can fix my two-thread mess for me…sorry! * Valerie * [jberghem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jberghem/) * (@jberghem) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779418) * Your sidebar is inside a
    that has an ID named “sidebar”. You can target this in your themes stylesheet (style.css). Don’t add any styles to the sidebar. php file adding old (X)HTML styling attributes and/or inline CSS to your (X)HTML in the PHP files is bad practice and only makes it difficult for you. * If you want the whole sidebar to have a white background then add the following CSS to your style.css * ``` #sidebar { background: #fff; } ``` * If you want to add a background color to the individual widgets then add the following CSS * ``` li.widget { background: #fff; } ``` * I don’t mean to offend the author of the theme but (X)HTML in this theme is not structured in the easiest or optimized way for customization. This is also the reason why the widgets don’t have the same background as the bar on the right. The white background with the yellow/black border is a graphic image. * The spam problem can never be caused by the WordPress widgets. * [brookecoin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brookecoin/) * (@brookecoin) * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779455) * Hi jberghem, I tried to do it is those to sites: [http://free-conference-call.info](http://free-conference-call.info) [http://design-website-software.com](http://design-website-software.com) * It didn’t work for me. It was making so much problems that i had to change it. * FYI Brooke * [jberghem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jberghem/) * (@jberghem) * [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779464) * [@brookecoin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brookecoin/) – These instructions only apply to the theme valerie123 is using in her specific situation. You are using the default theme therefore it doesn’t work for you. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Display Recent Post’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * ["recent post"](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/recent-post/) * 9 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [jberghem](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jberghem/) * Last activity: [17 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/display-recent-post-1/#post-779464) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics