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How To Add Menu In WordPress? 2 Easy Ways

Every WordPress theme comes with a menu system also known as a navigation menu, navigation bar, or main menu. Here we are using Menu Editor to add a menu in WordPress. There are different locations on your site depending on your theme to display a menu. We are using the Twenty Twenty WordPress theme as our example theme. It provides us with up to five menus to display in different locations on our site. It means that you can place a menu in five different places on your site or you can place up to five menus in five different locations. Here are the steps to create a menu.

Add Menu in WordPress

To Add Menu In WordPress Using Menus Screen

WordPress provides a Menu Editor with a drag-and-drop interface to create or edit menus. You can access it via Dashboard > Appearance > Menus. The steps are as follows.

Step 1: Click On Menus.

Dashboard >> Appearance >> Menus.

menu on wordpress
Menus

Clicking on the Menus option brings up Menus Screen. There are many options available to create a new menu under the Edit Menus tab. See the image.

Step 2: Edit Menus.

wordpress how to add page to menu

Explanation:

The Edit Menu tab has two options Add menu Items and Menu Structure. Under the options Menu Structure, you have to enter the name of your menu in Menu Name Box, because we can create more than one menu in WordPress, therefore every menu must have a unique name.

The option Add Menu Items has four items to add to a menu.

Let’s create an Example menu say Top Menu. The steps are given below.

Step 1: Enter Menu Name.

Top Menu will be the name of our example menu, so under the options Menu Structure, enter Top Menu in Menu Name Box and press the Save Menu button.

As you press Save Menu Button, an updated Menus Screen will appear with a new Tab Manage Locations. As you know we are using the Twenty Twenty theme. This theme makes available five locations to display our menus. We can create as many as menus we want, and any five of them can be displayed in different locations given in the Manage Locations option.

navigation menu wordpress

Step 2: Add Menu Items.

The option Add Menu Items under Edit Menus has four items to add to a menu, you can either add all types of items or add any one of them. All four options are explained below.

  • Pages:
    It shows all the published pages to add to a menu. You can select as many as many pages as you want to add to your newly created Top Menu. The select All option is also available to select all the pages in your menu.
  • Add to Menu Button:
    It adds all the selected pages to the menu.
menus on wordpress

Posts :
It is similar to the Pages option, you can add your published posts to your menu.

Custom Link:
You can also add a link as a menu item in your menu. This option has two boxes one is for a link and the other is for link text which will appear as a menu item.

how to add menu to wordpress
Custom Link.

Categories:
You can also add categories as menu items in your menu. The process of adding categories is similar to the Posts or Pages option.

wordpress navigation menus
Categories

Step 3: Adding Items To the Menu.

Top Menu is the name of our example menu and we are going to add 2 posts, a Contact Us page, a link to wpHow.co site and 2 Categories using Add Menu Items option. Here you can rearrange menu items according to your choice.

image add a menu - wordpress how to add pages to menu
Add Menu Items.

Step 4: Menu Settings.

We are using Example Theme Twenty Twenty and this theme provides five places to add a menu. You can select any Display location(s) for your menu.

how to create menu in wordpress

An explanation of each option is given below.

Automatically add new top-level pages to this menu:
If you opt for this option all-new top-level pages get added to your menu automatically.

Desktop Horizontal Menu:
If you select this option, your menu will appear at the top menu area of the theme. See the image.

wordpress adding pages to menu

Desktop expended Menu:

Your menu will appear on the page as shown in the image

add menu to wordpress
Expended Menu.

Mobile Menu:
The appearance of your menu will be mobile-friendly menu type.

how to create menus in wordpress
Mobile Menu.

Footer Menu:
The menu will appear in the footer section area.

wordpress menu
Footer Menu.

Social Menu:
The menu will be displayed in the Social media section area.

what is a menu in wordpress
Social Menu.

Step 5: Click On Save menu Button.

As you click on Save Menu Button, You will get your menu activated on your site.

How To Create A Multi-Level Menu In WordPress?

WordPress has a very simple drag-and-drop interface in the Menu editor to rearrange and create a multi-level menu system. In order to create a sub-level menu, just drag it slightly right from its position. It will appear as a sub-menu within its just up-level parent menu.

We are placing Products and Goods as a sub-level menu under the parent menu Services. See the Image.

add page to menu wordpress

Let’s see the appearance of a multi-level menu on our site.

wordpress menu bar
Multi-level Menu.

How To Delete A Menu In WordPress?

Menu Editor provides the Delete Menu option. Clicking on this option brings up a menu deletion confirmation dialog box. If you opt Yes option then your menu will get deleted permanently otherwise no action will be taken if you choose No.

edit menus in wordpress

How To Add Menu In WordPress Using Customizer?

We can also create or edit menus using WordPress Customizer. The process of creating a menu using Customizer is almost the same as the process described in the To Add Menu In WordPress Using Menus Screen section of the article. Here are the steps.

Step 1: Click On Customize.

Dashboard >> Appearance >> Customize.

wordpress edit menu

On clicking Customize, it brings up the Customizer screen with many options as shown in the image below.

Step 2: Click On the Menus Option.

wordpress menu widgets
Menus.

Step 3: Click On Create New Menu.

Under the Menus Screen, there are two options one is Create New Menu and another option is View All Locations.

Here you can create a new menu using Create New Menu option Button.

how to edit a menu in wordpress
Menu Customizer.

Step 4: Enter Menu Name And Choose Location(s).
The view All Locations option is a theme-dependent option since we are using Twenty Twenty Theme. It provides five locations to display your menus. Let’s enter a menu name in Menu Name Box say My Menu and Choosing Desktop Horizontal Menu as its location.

wordpress pages not showing up in menu

Step 5: Press next.

As you click on the Next Button, it will bring a new screen with Add Items option Button.

wordpress links menu

Step 6: Click On Add Items Button.

add on menu
Add menu items.

Adding items to the menu is similar to as described in Adding Items To Menu section of the article. Here we are adding two posts and one page as an example in our menu.

Step 7: Press Publish Button.

After adding items Press Publish Button. Your menu will get activated and will appear in the top menu navigational area.

Let’s see what it looks like on our site.

wordpress nav menu

To Add A Menu In WordPress Using A Plugin

There are many free and pro version Plugins available in WordPress Plugins Directory to add a menu to a WordPress site. Here is a Plugin search result page that is included to show such Plugins in the WordPress repository.

edit navigation bar wordpress
icons icons icons icons icons icons icons

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