Site Menus
Site Menus are a list of links that are usually displayed as the main navigation for your site. The menu location can vary depending on your theme, and some themes offer additional menus such as social links menus.
Create a Menu
The steps below will show you how to edit existing Site Menus, or create your own custom Site Menu.
- Click My Site(s), then Design → Customize.
- In the Customizer, click the Menus tab.
- If your theme already has a default/primary menu, you can click on it to begin editing.
- If your theme does not already have a default or primary menu click Create New Menu.
- Give your menu a name.
- Select where you want the menu to appear.
- Your Menu Location options will depend on your theme.
- Click Next to begin adding items to your new menu.
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The Menu Locations available in the Rivington theme are the Primary Menu and the Social Links Menu.
The Social Links menu styles menu items as social icons. In this case, we want the Primary Menu.
Add Menu Items
In addition to pages you have already published, you can add several different types of menu items to your custom menu:
- Custom Link – a custom URL linking to another site.
- Pages – a link to another page on your site.
- Posts – a blog post on your site.
- Testimonials – a link to testimonials.
- Projects – a link to a page of your portfolio projects.
- Categories – a feed of blog posts from a given category.
- Tags – a feed of blog posts from a given tag.
- Project Types – a link to a specific portfolio project type.
- Project Tags – a link to a specific portfolio project tag.
To add one of these menu items:
- Click the + Add Items button.
- Choose a menu item type from the list. For example Pages.
- Select one of the options displayed for that type. For example, click + Home to add a link to your home page to the menu.
- Add more items to your Custom Menu by clicking the plus next to each item.
- Click Save Changes to save your changes.
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If you wish to add a brand new page or post to your menu, you can add its title in the field for Add New Page or Add New Post. A blank page/post will be added to your site and automatically added to your menu.
You can then add content to the page or post through your Site Pages/Posts
Menu Display Location
If you want this menu to display on your site, select a Menu Location. For the main navigation, the correct setting depends on your theme. Often it is listed as Primary, Header, or Top.
If your theme offers a Social Links Menu, it will automatically convert menu items to corresponding icons for popular social media sites.
Automatically Add Pages to your Menu
Under Menu Options, check the “Automatically add new top-level pages to this menu” if you want newly created pages to automatically be added to the menu.
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If you leave this option unchecked, you will want to remember to edit your custom menu to add new pages to your navigation.
Reorder Menu Items
To re-order the items on your menu, move a menu item by clicking the Reorder link:
- Click on the Reorder link.
- Click the up or down arrows to move a menu item up and down in the menu.
- Click the right and left arrows to nest or un-nest pages under other pages.
- This is how drop-down menus are created.
- More information on drop-down menus can be found below.
- Click Save Changes at the top to save the changes.
You can also drag and drop a menu item into location without clicking the Reorder button first.
Create Drop-Down Menus
Nesting a page creates a sub-menu or drop-down menu.
- Click on the Reorder link.
- Click the > right arrow to nest a page under a parent page, creating a drop-down menu.
- Once you’re satisfied with your drop-down menu, click Done
- Then, click Save Changes to push your changes live.
Make an Unclickable Menu Item
You can create an unclickable menu item which is useful when creating dropdown menus.
- Click Add Items.
- Click the Custom Links option.
- In the URL field enter the # symbol.
- In the Link Text field enter the test you want to appear in your menu.
- Click Add to Menu.
Once the unclickable menu item is added, you can add the pages or posts that you want to show up under that menu, then reorder them to create your drop-down menu.
Delete Menu Items
You can remove menu items by clicking on them in the settings on the left. When you do, they will expand and reveal a Remove button. Click that to remove the menu item.
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Editing what shows in your site menu will not remove pages or posts that you created for your site. Removing a menu item only removes the link to the page from your menu.
Customize the Menu Item Text
You can change the name of the menu item as it appears on your site by editing the navigation label.
- Click on the menu item on the left of the Menu Customizer to expand additional options for the menu item.
- Change the Navigation Label to what you want to show on your menu.
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For example, you might name your page something like Contact the Team, but on the menu, you just want it to show as “Contact.”
Save your Changes
Once you have organized your menu, be sure to click the Save Changes button to save your site menu.
Frequently Asked Questions
The type of menu item I want is unsupported, what should I do?
If you get a warning saying that your item type is unsupported, or you can’t see your desired type in the types list, you can still edit these types at WP Admin → Menus. Currently, some Post formats are not supported in the new menu page but are still supported in WP Admin.
It’s showing a Menu but when I go on my site the menu is not there, how do I fix it?
If your theme isn’t showing your default menu, try making any change to the menu and re-save — this should force the theme to use that menu.
Where is the feature X that was there before?
If you want advanced features, such as adding menu item descriptions, CSS classes, changing a link’s target or title attributes — please use WP Admin → Menus.
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Next page: Menus in WP Admin
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