3-20: Customizing Menus Video Lecture | WordPress for Beginners - Software Development

hello and welcome back in this video we
are going to learn how to create and
customize the navigation menu within
WordPress by default WordPress
automatically adds many items when new
pages are created if any pages are
nested then WordPress creates sub menus
with the parent page being on the top
level and child pages appearing below it
an example of this would be the about Me
section with about me being the parent
page in my equipment and playlist pages
being child pages you also notice the
title for each navigation item is
identical to the page name although this
could work okay it's not ideal as you
may want to change the title for these
navigation items and you may want to add
other items besides pages to the
navigation menu go to the menus sub
panel by hovering over your site name
and then selecting menus alternatively
from the dashboard hover over appearance
and then select menus in the menu sub
panel you can create custom navigation
menus for your website to create a
custom menu enter a name for the menu
it's a good idea to give it a
descriptive name so it'll be easily
identifiable when you have multiple
menus when you're happy with the name
click create menu
the top there are two tabs we are
currently in the mini editing tab in
this tab we can customize the menu
structure by adding editing rearranging
and deleting many items in the manage
locations tab we can specify the
location for a menu simply put when we
create a new menu we need to specify
where on the website
we like that menu to display the theme
we are currently using 2014 supports too
many locations the top primary menu and
a secondary menu in the left sidebar we
just created the top navigation menu so
beside top primary menu use the
drop-down and select the menu we just
created and then click Save Changes
we have just told wordpress for the top
primary menu we'd like to use a menu
called top navigation menu go back to
the Edit tab
notice under theme locations the box
beside top primary menu is checked
indicating where the menu will be
displayed you can change this location
at any time by checking the boxes and
then clicking save menu you can also
change the name of this menu at any time
by entering a new name at the top and
then click Save menu
to add items to the menu choose from the
modules on the left we can add pages
lengths and categories expanding screen
options will let you toggle additional
modules like posts tags and formats for
now we'll leave these settings as is in
the pages module the most recent tab
shows a list of pages recently created
vo tab will display a full list of pages
on your website and if you have a large
number of pages you can use the search
function the links module allows you to
add custom links to the menu the
categories module lists or blog
categories on your website I'll go ahead
and add all pages to the menu simply
click select all then err too many
change the display order of these items
by dragging and dropping
you can create submenus by placing an
item below the parent page and then
dragging it to the right
to edit each item simply click the down
arrow on the right side then make the
necessary changes
to remove a menu item expand item
settings then click remove
after you're finished customizing your
mini click Save menu
we'll then open a
new tab showing the front end of our
website
we can see our menu is now displayed at
the top complete with nested pages
displaying as drop-down menu items
we are also going to create a secondary
menu that displays all post categories
as well as a link go back to the menus
sub panel then click create a new menu
into a name in her to create a menu
we'll tell WordPress to assign this menu
to the secondary menu location by
checking the box and then clicking save
mini remember you can also assign menu
locations in the manage locations tab
for this menu I'll add all post
categories
I'll also add a custom link to Google
expand the links module and enter a URL
for Google will then specify a title for
this menu item
click Add to menu save mini refresh and
view outside
as you can see there is now an active
secondary menu on the Left sidebar
displaying our list of post categories
as well as an external link to Google a
neat trick with the Lengths module is
its ability to act as a placeholder so
far we have created many items using
existing content what if you don't have
any content yet but you still want to
flesh out the menu structure when you're
creating a menu if you like to plan
ahead and come up with a basic menu
structure but do not have any content
yet the links module becomes a handy
tool I will show you what I mean
first we'll switch the menu we're
editing when you have more than one menu
you're able to toggle between menus you
want to edit we'll choose the top
navigation menu then hit select
we are now editing the top navigation
menu although I haven't written articles
on optimal payment methods for traveling
I'd still like to flesh out a mini
structure so I can see what the menu
might look like to insert a placeholder
simply expand the links module in the
URL field we'll enter the number sign or
hash tag and then specify a name for the
menu item
click Add to mini when you're finished
then create a few more places credit
cards online payments Visa MasterCard
PayPal and authorized.net
you
we all now organize these items and to
drop their menus will first nest credit
cards and online payment under payment
methods they move these M MasterCard
under credit cards PayPal in
authorize.net under online payment
I prefer payment methods to display
before contact me so I'll rearrange them
we'll save the menu in view our site
we can now see a new item in the top
navigation called payment methods and
hovering over it will bring up a submenu
in hovering over credit cards and online
payments will show additional items
bear in mind clicking on these items
will not do anything as these are just
placeholders as you can see using the
link module as a placeholder is
extremely useful for when you want to
get a feel for how your site might look
or if you want to plan or flesh out the
menu structure for your site even if you
don't have any content yet of course
when you do have the content don't
forget to delete placeholders and add in
the actual content next we'll be
learning about things
you