How to Create & Edit A Menu in WordPress

Step 1 : Click on the Appearance Tab in the WordPress Dashboard

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step1

1. Click on the Appearance Menu Option in Dashboard.
2. Click on “Menus”.
3. The Menus screen will get displayed.

Step 2: Create a Menu

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step 2

1. Click on the “+” sign to create a new menu.
2. Enter the new menu name. This name does appear anywhere. It can be any name that makes sense. Think of it like a container which will contain all the menu items like page, categories etc. So for e.g. if you name it “Main Menu”, it could represent all the menu items that will go into the “Main Menu” like Home, Contact, Blog etc.
3. Click on the ‘Create Menu’ button and the menu “New Menu” is created.

Step 3: Add Menu Items when creating a new Menu or when changing and existing menu

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step 3

Note: To change an exiting menu item you have to follow the steps below. You also have to delete the previous menu item (step 7).
1. All the menu items that can be added to the menu “”New Menu” are listed on the Left hand side. In this example I have selected some pages and added to the menu, by clicking on the “Add to menu” button
2. All the pages that I selected are added to the “New Menu” on the right hand side.
3. The order of the menu items can be moved up and down by dragging and dropping the menu item. Similarly, you can make a menu item a child (sub menu) by dragging it sideways.
4. Categories can also be made a menu item and can be added in the same way as Pages.
5. Say you have posts that have been assigned a category “Tutorials” which you want to appear in the menu. Check the “Tutorials” category.
6. Click on “Add to Menu” . The category “Tutorials” will be added to the menu on the right hand side.
7. Similarly you can add a custom link to your menu. For e.g. if you want a link to ‘CNN’ to appear on your menu, just add the URL of CNN under custom links and hit “Add to Menu”
8. Finally click on the the “Save Menu” to save all your changes.

Step 4: Changing the Menu Item Name

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step 4

1. By default the name of the Menu Item is to the name of the Page or Category selected. To change this default name, click on the Page or Category you wish to edit.
2. Enter the name in the “Navigation Label” column that you wish to appear on the Menu. In this example I have changed the “About” page to appear as “About Me”.
3. The “Title Attribute” is what will appear when your mouse hovers over the menu item. In this case, when a user hovers over the “About Me” menu item, the text “About the Author” will appear.
4. Click on the “Save Menu” button to save your changes.
5. If you need to delete this menu item click on “Remove”. Don’t forget to hit “Save Menu” .

Step 5: Setting your new Menu

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step 5

1. The “New Menu” that was just created, can be setup to be used by your WordPress theme or it can be used as custom menu widget on your sidebar (See step 6). Some WordPress themes support more than one menu at a time. It all depends on the theme being used by your website. So you can sometimes select a Primary Menu, a Secondary Menu or a Footer Menu. Each menu can be created in the same way as we created “New Menu”. If the new menu is to be used in the sidebar then it has be selected in the “Widgets” option of the WordPress Dashboard,
2. In this theme only 1 primary menu can be displayed on the website. Select the menu to be displayed by clickinng on the dropdown arrows. A list of all your menus will be displayed.
3. Hit the “Save” button. The menu you selected will now appear on your website.

Step 6: Adding a Custom Menu to the sidebar

How To Create a Menu In WordPress – Step 6

1. To add the “New Menu” to the sidebar. Click on “Appearance” and then “Widgets” under the WordPress Dashboard.
2. The Widgets screen will be displayed.
3. Drag the “Custom Menu” widget to the “Sidebar” on the right.
4. Enter the title of this new menu that you wish to appear on your sidebar and select the menu that you wish to appear in the sidebar. In this example I wish to have the menu “New Menu” that I created earlier appear on the sidebar.
5. Hit the Save button. The menu “New Menu” with all it’s menu items that I created earlier will now appear on the sidebar.

Step 7: Deleting a Menu Item

Delete A Menu Item

1. Select the Menu Option under the ‘Appearance’ Option in the WordPress Dashboard.
2. Make sure to select the right ‘Menu’.
3. Click on the menu you wish to remove. Click on ‘Remove’.
4. Don’t forget to ‘Save’ the menu

Step 8: Editing a Menu Item

To edit a menu item, you have to :

1. Delete the existing menu item (step 7)
2. Add a new menu item (step 3)

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