{"id":77,"date":"2020-05-13T20:55:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T20:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:55:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:55:44","slug":"creating-and-editing-menus","status":"publish","type":"reference-article","link":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/reference-article\/creating-and-editing-menus\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating and Editing Menus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Use Menus?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Menus are useful for keeping a site better organized, and they help users navigate the site more easily. Most websites feature a navigation menu at the top of every page that directs users to specific pages across the website. Some examples of typical navigation menu items are &#8220;About,&#8221; &#8220;Contact,&#8221; &#8220;Help&#8221; and &#8220;News.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creating a Menu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"571\" src=\"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2020\/05\/wp-dashboard-add-a-menu-1024x571.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of the Menu section found in the WordPress dashboard. Written instruction provided below.\" class=\"wp-image-78\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To create a menu, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From the Dashboard of your WordPress site, hover your cursor over the \u201cAppearance\u201d link in the left-hand menu (see image above).&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>From the menu that displays, click \u201cMenus.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Next, provide a \u201cMenu Name\u201d and click \u201cCreate Menu.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After creating your new menu, under \u201cAdd menu items,\u201d check the Pages, Posts, Custom Links or Categories you want your menu to feature, and then click \u201cAdd to Menu.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Now that you have selected the items to build out your menu, check &#8220;Display location&#8221; under \u201cMenu Settings.\u201d <strong>Note: <\/strong>For a top-level menu on the front page of your website, check \u201cWebsite navigation.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finally, click \u201cSave Menu.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tip: <\/strong>Now that the menu has been created, preview the site&#8217;s actual homepage to ensure that it looks correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using &#8220;Customize&#8221; To Edit Your Menu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An easy-to-use alternative to the approach mentioned above is the &#8220;Customize&#8221; function. Like the &#8220;Menus&#8221; function, this feature is found under the &#8220;Appearance&#8221; section of the dashboard. This method is great for making quick changes while giving you a preview of how your menu will appear on your site. Below is a brief, helpful video from WordPress detailing how this process works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to add links to a menu on WordPress.com\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4iVybHkCYXE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Menus Training<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our <a href=\"https:\/\/reporter.ncsu.edu\/link\/courseview?courseID=ADV-UCOMM-SA&amp;deptName=ADV\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/reporter.ncsu.edu\/link\/courseview?courseID=ADV-UCOMM-SA&amp;deptName=ADV\">Site Administrator<\/a> training provides a look into building out menus for a WordPress site. Content maintainers interested in learning more about this process should consider registering for this training.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"is-text wp-block-ncst-buttons\">\n    \n<div class=\"is-style-secondary wp-block-ncst-button\">\n      <a\n        class=\"ncst-block__button-link btn\"\n        href=\"https:\/\/reporter.ncsu.edu\/link\/courseview?courseID=ADV-UCOMM-SA&amp;amp;deptName=ADV\"\n        data-ncst-lightbox=\"false\"\n                      >\n                  <span class=\"text\">Register for workshop<\/span><span class=\"arrow-indicator\"><svg class=\"wolficon wolficon-arrow-right-bold\" role=\"img\"  aria-hidden=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<use xlink:href=\"#wolficon-arrow-right-bold\">\n\t\t<\/svg><\/span>\n              <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n  \n\n  <\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"pageIntro\":\"How to add menus to a WordPress site.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"availability":[49],"content-type":[75],"class_list":["post-77","reference-article","type-reference-article","status-publish","hentry","availability-nc-state-theme","content-type-site-settings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reference-article"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40041,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article\/77\/revisions\/40041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"availability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/availability?post=77"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}