Creating Menu Items

menu_item_manager.jpg

To add an item to a menu:

IMPORTANT: The item (article, component, etc.) that you want to link to must already be created. You cannot create a menu item for an item that doesn’t exist yet.

Once the item has been created, to add a menu item, go to ‘Menus’ and choose from the drop down the menu you want to add to.

Example: Menus, Main Menu. You will now see the ‘Menu Item Manager.’

menu_item_manager.jpg
Select ‘new’ on the right hand side menu. You will now see ‘Select Menu Item Type.’
For articles, select ‘Articles’ and then ‘Article Layout’
You will now see the Menu Item: [ New ] Article Layout page.
article_layout_menu_item.jpg
On the right hand side, there is an option for ‘Parameters – Basic,’ with a ‘Select Article’ field. Click on ‘Select’ and navigate to the article you want to create the menu item for. Enter a title in the Menu Item Details Title field on the left. The title can be the same as the title of the article, if you wish. Remember that it will appear as part of the menu, so the title should not be very long.

There are several additional options on the Article Layout page, which are largely self-explanatory. In the Parent Item: section, you can choose to create the menu item as a submenu of an existing item. A menu item for the religious school, for example, might be placed under the main menu item for Youth.
‘Access level’ allows you to restrict access to only registered site users, or to ‘special’ – which refers to users with the status of publisher or above. (See user management for more information about user types.)

When you create a new menu item, it will be added as the last item in the menu. To change the order of the menu items, go to the Menu Item Manager. You will have two options for changing the order – the small green up and down arrows allow you to move a menu item up or down one line at a time. After you click on an up or down arrow, the page will automatically refresh, and you will see the new position. This is fine for moving a menu item up or down one or two positions, but is less useful for moving a menu item from position 20 to position 2. Instead, you can enter a number in the ‘order column’ and then click the small disk icon next to the order column, to save your choice. To move a menu item ‘Activities’ from 20 to 2, for example, you would enter ‘2’ in the order column for ‘Activities’ and click on the disk icon to make the change. The page will now refresh, and you can view the new order, and make further changes as needed.