Follow these instructions for creating menus for the WordPress for Texas theme or other themes that have the custom menu feature activated. This is the default method for creating menus on our WordPress sites but if you don’t currently have access to the Custom Menu Dashboard please contact the web team at cofawebmaster@austin.utexas.edu to have this feature activated.
Features of Custom Menus
- Different text in the menu label than the Page Title. Pages with long Titles can have shortened menu labels.
- You can link to external websites.
To manage a Custom Menu
Go to Appearance -> Menus from the dashboard.
At the very top of the page, in the drop-down “Select a menu to edit:” you may need to select Site Navigation or Main Menu.
Adding Items to a Menu
- Locate the area of the screen entitled Pages.
- Within this area, select the View All link to bring up a list of all the currently published Pages on your site.
- Select the Pages that you want to add by clicking the checkbox next to each Page’s title.
- Click the Add to Menu button located at the bottom of this area to add your selection(s) to the menu.
- In the “Menu Structure” area of the screen, you can drag and drop the items into the order you desire. See “Changing the Menu Item Order & Creating Multi-level Menus” below.
- Click the Save Menu button.
Menu Items
Delete a Menu Item
- Locate the menu item that you want to remove in the menu editing screen.
- Click on the arrow icon in the top right-hand corner of the menu item/box to expand it.
- Click on the Remove link. The menu item/box will be immediately removed.
- Click the Save Menu button.
Customizing Menu Items
The Navigation Label
By default, this field is the Title of the page. Edit the field to display a different label for the item in your menu navigation. Click the Save Menu button to save your changes.
The Title Attribute
This text will be displayed when a user’s mouse hovers over a menu item. Click the Save Menu button to save your changes.
Open Link in New Tab
To have menu items open in a new tab open the Menu Item and select the Open link in new tab radial button and save update. If you don’t see this button contact the COFA Webteam to update your site’s settings.
Changing the Menu Item Order & Creating Multi-level Menus
Drag menu items up or down in the list to rearrange the display order. Drag them to the right in order to create secondary and tertiary sub-levels.
- Position the mouse over the menu item until the cursor displays as four arrows.
- Hold the left mouse button as you drag the item to the desired position.
- Release the mouse button.
- Click the Save Menu button.
Adding a Post Category as a Menu Item
If your WordPress site has a blog roll you can add specific Categories to your Custom Menu to highlight those posts.
For example: If your organization posts annual or monthly meeting minutes to your blog, you can a Meetings link in your menu. When visitors click on the link they will be taken to a blog role of just the meeting minutes in date order.
To do this: First in the Categories section of your Post editor and give your post the category you’d like to use as your Menu item. If you don’t see the appropriate category create a new one by selecting Add New Category. Don’t forget to Publish your update.
Then go to your Custom Menu Editor and under Add Menu Items select the categories dropdown. Choose the Category you’d like to make a Menu item and then click Add to Menu.
Once your Category is added to the menu you can change the order etc. Don’t forget to save your menu when you are done!
Learn More
Find instructions to improve your site navigation on the COFA Web Instruction site.
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As of Fall 2019, we have websites using different themes that handle menus a little differently:
UT WordPress theme: editors follow custom menu instructions.
University Responsive theme:
For most of these sites, pages are automatically added to the menu when they are published, just follow the instructions below. A small number of these sites require an Administrator or the COFA Web team and are using a custom menu. If the instructions below do not work for you, please let us know.
Pages saved as Draft do not appear in the menu.
The placement of the link to a page in the menu is controlled by the Parent and Order settings in the Page Attributes area of the edit screen.
Parent – You can arrange your pages in hierarchies. For example, you could have an “About” page that has “Life Story” and “My Dog” pages under it. There are no limits to how many levels you can nest pages.
Order – Pages are usually ordered alphabetically, but you can choose your own order by entering a number (1 for first, etc.) in this field.
Learn More
Find some tips to improve your site navigation on the COFA Web Instruction site.
