How to edit the custom menu in a WordPress website

The custom menu in a WordPress website is easy to change, but it can sometimes be a bit glitchy or slow and you might inadvertently end up with a strange result – don’t panic! It can easily be fixed with a little patience.

The best way to avoid problems is to make changes one at a time and ‘Save Menu‘ each time. A bit more time consuming (- and sometimes you may find you can make several changes at once without any issues – but it’s a bit of a gamble).

  • NB: These Custom Menu instructions refer to the main drop down menu (usually found towards the top of the page just under the header image.) Not all websites are structured in this way.
  • This menu works completely independently and does not affect any other part of the website (such as the sitemap) or change automatically when other changes are made to your website – in other words if you want to add a new page to the menu you have to add it manually (as described below).

dashboard-menu

Go to ‘Menus‘ (either from the top tool bar drop-down under the name of your website, or from the LHS menu:  Dashboard->Appearance-> Menus)

appearance-menus

The current menu items appear as a list called Menu Structure.
(Some larger websites may have more than one menu – check that it’s the correct one – usually ‘main‘.)

In a LH box all the pages/posts/custom links/categories/tags etc are all available to add to the menu.

Pages appears as the default. (If the type of page/category etc. you want is not available, toggle the ‘Screen Options’ in the top RH corner – it might be there.)

Select the page(s) you wish to add (use Search if necessary). Check the box and click ‘Add to Menu‘.

The page(s) will appear at the bottom of the list. Drag and drop it (or them) to the position you require. (This works a bit slowly and requires a little patience.)

menus

If dragging and dropping isn’t working very well, try clicking the small triangle on the bar to open up the details and choose Move-> To the top / Up one / Down one or Under a previous page to create a sub item.

You can also edit the Navigation label here. Choose a short title that succinctly describes the page.

If you no longer require a button, click ‘Remove‘.

Click ‘Save Menu‘ and check the results. If it’s not how you want it, just take your time checking the Menu Structure again and put things right. If menu items seem to disappear, check that they are not at the bottom of the list again.

menu

, , , ,