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WordPress: Creating Menu Navigation
WordPress, version 5.7. The instructions in this guide apply to sites built with the PLU Digital Humanities Lab version of WordPress and may not translate to sites built with WordPress.com or other versions.
Menus are used to navigate through the pages of a site. They typically appear as a bar on the top, left, or right of a site, and have links to the pages. Since most sites don't have a Menu by default, a Menu needs to be created manually. Then, the Menu can be configured to have all new pages added to it automatically. Without a Menu, site visitors won't be able to navigate through the site. We recommend creating a Blog page, and adding that to the Menu, for all posts to be added to (see WordPress: Customizing a Site for more details).
We also recommend publishing at least one page before creating a Menu. If the Customizer is opened before the first page is published, WordPress will automatically generate 4 unnecessary new pages and a Menu.
To create a Menu:
- After publishing at least one page, navigate to Appearance > Customize. The site Customizer will open.
- Select "Menus" from the panel to the left.
- Click "Create new Menu."
- Enter a title in the "Menu Name" field, such as "Main Menu."
- Check the box for, "Primary Menu," and click "Next."
- Click "Add Items." A new panel will open.
- Select each desired page. They will be added to the Menu, as well as the Menu page list.
- Adjust pages as desired:
- Reorder: click-and-drag the pages up-or-down in the Menu list to change the order they appear in the Menu on the site.
- Subpages: subpages are drop-down menus that are nested under top-level pages in the Menu. To convert into a subpage, click-and-drag an item below another one, indented to the right.
- Remove: click the red X next to the page name, or click the down-arrow and click "Remove." This will remove the page from the Menu, but won't delete the page itself.
Sites can have multiple Menus, and Menus can be adjusted anytime in the site Customizer. or by going to Appearance > Menus.
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