When visitors come to your site, they need a way to get down into the various pages below the home page. Menus facilitate this traffic, by providing a series of links to guide them to major pages, as well as lower into subordinate pages.

This tutorial addresses how to configure menus. It looks at how to build more complex site navigation through the use of hierarchical menus and the configuration of sub-menus that only appear on subordinate pages. And, it shows how to create a blog roll for your site.

Configuring menu navigation

Menu navigation is accomplished through your site’s primary links. Primary links form a basic navigation layout, allowing you to guide visitors to the major pages on your site, such as the home page, blog page, media gallery, and contact form. The goal is that from any part of your site, visitors can find their way to the major page, and then work their way down from that point to the content they want.

When certain themes are active, the primary links appear at the top of the page. There is also a block that displays them, which can be placed in the preferred region for your site.

Note: Most of the primary and secondary links on your site require that you create related content before they become active and visible.

To add a menu item to your primary links, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site information > Menus. The Menus page opens.
2. Click the Primary links link. The Primary links page opens.
3. Click the Add item tab.
4. In the Path field, enter the URL for the page you want to link.
5. In the Menu link title field, enter the title that you would like to appear as the link.
6. [Optional] In the Description field, enter a note that tells where the link goes. This is the text that appears when visitors place the cursor over the link.
7. Click Save.

Your menu item appears among the primary links. Anyone can now click it to reach the designated page.

Continue to add links for each of your major pages. Note that some links only appear when they are linked to actual content.

Note: Do not use the Navigation menu to create your links. Navigation is the default navigation for all your site permissions, according to user. You can place a separate block for these links on your site or disable it, from the Blocks page.

Using the Primary links block

If the theme for your site does not offer a menu bar for your primary links by default, you must place the Primary links block on your site in order for visitors to use them.

To place the Primary links block, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site building > Blocks. The Blocks page opens.
2. Find the Primary links block. Use the drop-down menu or the cross to move the block into the region of your preference.
3. Click Save blocks.

The Primary links block is now active on your site.

Creating custom menus

In addition or as an alternative to the primary links, you can also create a custom first-level navigation.

You would do this if you would like a second arrangement of first-level links placed in a different region, or if you do not like the arrangement or style of the default banner provided by your theme.

To create a custom menu, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site building > Menus. The Menus page opens.
2. Click the Add menu tab.
3. Enter text for the Menu name and Title fields.
4. [Optional] In the Description field, enter a note that tells where the link goes. This is the text that appears when visitors place the cursor over the link.
5. Click Save.

Your custom menu is now active and available from the Menus page. A block is added to the Disabled list on the Blocks page that displays links for all items that you add to this menu.

Follow the above procedures to add links to your custom menu and to place its block on your site.

Configuring hierarchical navigation

In addition to the menu, or primary links, you can also make your navigation hierarchical, so that there are subordinate levels of links under your primary links.

For instance, say you would like to organize a series of related pages under one general page’s link on the menu. After you have created the pages, you can add menu items that are subordinate to the primary link. The result is that visitors are given a smaller menu where most of the links they need can be found right at the top, but they can also navigate directly to more specialized pages by using lower levels in the hierarchy.

To add a second level of navigation to your primary links, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site building > Menus.
2. Click the Primary links link. The Primary links page opens.
3. Click the Add item tab.
4. In the Path field, enter the URL for the page you want to link.
5. In the Menu link title field, enter the title that you would like to appear as the link.
6. [Optional] In the Description field, enter a note that tells where the link goes. This is the text that appears when visitors place the cursor over the link.
7. In the Parent item section, use the drop-down to select the primary link you would like this item to appear under.
8. Click Save

Your primary links are now hierarchical, with the new level appearing under the indicated menu item. The new link appears in the Primary links block.

You can continue to add items to your site’s navigation, going down as far as nine levels of hierarchy.

Creating page specific menus

Links do not have to be all grouped in order under one menu. If your site features a complex arrangement of links, you can enhance its usability by breaking the menus up and setting them on specific groupings of pages.

For instance, you can require visitors to go from the Home page to a Writings page, before they can reach your Blog page. The main menu would give all the primary links, but you can also provide secondary menus to assist visitors in navigating the lower levels of your site. These secondary menu would only appear in the parts of your site where they are relevant.

After you create new menus, populate them with menu items, and place them on your site, you can configure the menu block’s visibility settings, so that you control the pages on which the blocks appear.

To configure the menu block’s visibility, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site building > Blocks.
2. Find the menu block you want to modify, and then click the configure link. The block’s configuration page opens.
3. In the Show block on specific pages section, select the Show on every page except the listed pages option, or the Show on only the listed pages option.
4. In the Pages section, enter those pages that you want to use the visibility settings on.
5. Click Save block.
6. Click Save blocks.

Your menu block now appears only on the pages that you want.

Creating a blog roll of external links

To create a blog roll of external links, complete the following steps:

1. In the admin menu, click Site building > Menus.
2. Click the Add menu tab.
3. Enter text for the Menu name and Title fields.
4. Click Save. The Menus page reopens.
5. Click the link to your new menu.
6. Click the Add item tab.
7. In the Path field, enter the URL that you want for your blog roll.
8. In the Menu link title, enter the name you want to appear on your blog roll.
9. In the Parent item section, use the drop-down to select your new menu.
10. Click Save.

Your site now features a blog roll of external links, links are added as their content appears at the designated URL. The block for the blog roll is now available on the Blocks page and is ready to be placed on your site.