{"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":"2026-02-25T11:20:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:20:36","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>Menus are useful for keeping a site better organized, and can be beneficial for users as it helps them navigate the site more easily. Many, if not most, sites feature a navigation menu at the top of the homepage that directs users to specific pages across the website. Some examples of menu headers would be an \u2018About\u2019, \u2018Contact\u2019, \u2018Help\u2019 or \u2018News\u2019 section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Creating a Menu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Menus are created through the back-end of WordPress via the Dashboard. To get started with creating a new menu, locate \u201cAppearance\u201d from the left hand menu and click \u201cMenus\u201d.<\/p>\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><strong>Instructions:<\/strong><\/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).\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>From the menu that displays, click \u201cMenus\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Next, you will want to 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, you will want to check the Pages, Posts, Custom Links, or Categories you want to have featured, and then click \u201cAdd to Menu.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Now that you have selected the items to build out your menu, check the \u2018Display location\u2019 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><strong>Tip: <\/strong>Now that the menu has been created, it\u2019s a good idea to preview the actual homepage of the site to assure that it looks correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Using Customize to Edit Your Menu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An easy to use alternative to the approach mentioned above is using 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 helpful, brief 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>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\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Need Help?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Still unsure of how to create a menu for your WordPress site? Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns at <a href=\"http:\/\/go.ncsu.edu\/ucomm-dev-request\">go.ncsu.edu\/ucomm-dev-request<\/a>.<\/p>\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":[],"content-type":[],"class_list":["post-77","reference-article","type-reference-article","status-publish","hentry"],"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":5,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39235,"href":"https:\/\/university-communications.ncsu.edu\/documentation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reference-article\/77\/revisions\/39235"}],"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}]}}