Overview
In this guide, we explain how to edit the menu for a Dornsife minisite. You will need Administrator access to the minisite to edit the menu.
Minisite menu vs global menu
"Menu" in this guide refers to the minisite menu, which is unique to your minisite and only appears on your minisite pages.
There is also a "global" Dornsife menu: this is a higher-level menu for the Dornsife website which appears at the top of every page, both main website pages as well as mninisite pages.
Locating the Menu Admin Screen
Use the Menu Admin Screen to add items to and edit the minisite menu:
- Log into WordPress.
- Click Appearance > Menus in the menu.
- The Menu Admin Screen displays. Next to "Select a menu to edit," select Main Menu in the dropdown. Click Select.
- The "Menu structure" panel should display the hierarchy for the minisite menu.
Adding items to the menu
Use the "Add menu items" panel to add items to the main menu:
Add published Pages
- Select the checkbox beside each Page you want to add to the menu. The "Most Recent" tab displays the most recent published Pages. Click the View All or Search tab to locate more Pages.
- Don't see a Page listed? You need to publish it: draft Pages will not appear here unless you added the Page and subsequently unpublished it.
- Once you've selected at least one Page to add to the menu, click Add to Menu.
Add other items
You can also add Posts, custom links, and categories to the menu.
Editing and reordering menu items
Once items have been added to the menu, you can use the "Menu structure" panel to make edits. Be sure to click Save Menu after making any changes. Once you click Save Menu, changes will immediately publish (there is no draft mode).
Remove menu item
To the right of the item, click the arrow. Click Remove.
Rename menu item
To the right of the item, click the arrow. Edit the "Navigation Label" field.
Reorder menu item
Click and drag the item vertically to its new location.
Create menu sub-levels
By default, menu items appear as top-level items. If you have quite a few Pages, however, you start to run up against limitations in how many items can fit in the horizontal menu. The solution? Create a navigation hierarchy.
Each top-level menu item can nest one sub-level containing multiple items, known as sub items. These sub items are not visible to the viewer until they hover on or expand a top-level item.
Make sure that the item you want to put into a sub-level is located underneath the item you want it to nest under. Then, click and drag the item horizontally until it indents to the right. Once you release the item, the label "sub item" is added next to its title.
Menu restrictions
Menu item max
The number of items you can fit in the menu just depends on character count, as the menu stretches out horizontally across the page when viewed on the desktop. As a general rule of thumb, the menu should be able to fit up to six top-level items, and you should keep menu items fairly brief.
Sub-level items appear in a vertical menu, so the character count does not limit how many sub items you can add.
Menu sub-level max
Each top-level menu item can nest one sub-level containing multiple items. This means that top-level menu items can have multiple sub items, but sub items cannot have further sub-sub items.
For example, say we create a menu structure like this:
Top-level menu items display by default while sub items are hidden. When top-level menu items are hovered or expanded, sub items will display. Sub items nested within another sub item, however, like the "Setting up your workstation" sub item in the screenshot above, do not display.
Here's how this menu displays in desktop view:
And here's how this menu displays in mobile view:
Unused menus
Only the Main Menu is used for the minisite menu. Unused menus: Utility Menu, Footer Menu, and Privacy Menu.
Additional guidance
Live Preview option
If you're having difficulty visualizing the menu when you make changes on the Menu Admin Screen, you can select Manage with Live Preview to try out a slightly more intuitive mode:
Make sure to select Main Menu when you're making edits: