As you should know by now, the overall design & look of your WordPress website can simply be changed by ACTIVATING a new THEME. One of the ways that you can make your website more interesting and interactive is to create drop-down menus so that viewers can find the information on your website without having to spend too much time looking for it. Creating custom menus in WordPress is easy once you have learned the process, and it will help you keep your website organized.
Follow the steps below to create a custom menu:
Step 1: Go to the Dashboard, and open the Appearance tab.
Step 2: Click on Menus
Step 3: If you are using the Twenty-Ten theme, then you should see that this theme supports ONE menu.
Step 4: You should see a window to the left of the CREATE MENU button. We want to create a main menu, so enter [ main ] for your menu name, then click the blue “Create Menu” button.
Step 5: You should now see that the THEME LOCATIONS window is now activated. Click the drop-down arrow for PRIMARY NAVIGATION, then select “main” and click the blue SAVE button.
Step 6: You should have already created a HOME page. If not click here and follow STEP 2 and STEP 3.
Step 7: If you have created your HOME page, you should see it listed in the middle column, under CUSTOM LINKS and then under PAGES.
Step 8: Under the heading PAGES, it will list the webpages that you create. It will organize them according to MOST RECENT. Check mark the radio button beside HOME and click add to menu. Notice that your HOME page has now been added to your MAIN menu.
Step 9: Make sure you click the blue SAVE button on the far right.
Step 10: Visit your webpage and see if you have created a menu. You should see it under the header image
Step 11: Clicking on the HOME button in your menu, will always bring you or the viewer back to your HOME page.
Step 12: Let’s add more menu items.
Step 13: You will need to display your projects on your website, so let’s add a new menu button called [ Projects ].
Step 14: Make sure you are back to the Dashboard looking at the MENU screen.
Step 15: Under the heading CUSTOM LINKS there is a URL window, in this window I want you to just type a number sign [ # ]. Then in the LABEL window type [ Projects ]. Then click the button ADD TO MENU. You should now see PROJECTS added to your menu. Make sure you click the blue SAVE button on the right.
Step 16: If you check your website, you will see that Projects has been added to the menu on your website. Because we used a # for the URL in the custom links, it means that we have simply created a menu button.
Step 17: Let’s create a menu item that goes to a website.
Step 18: Open an Internet browser and find Google. Once you have the Google webpage open, select the URL for this webpage, it should read [ http://www.google.ca/ ]. Now go to the Custom Links URL window and paste the URL for Google here, again it should read [ http://www.google.ca/ ]. Then in the LABEL window type [ Google ]. Then click the button ADD TO MENU. You should now see GOOGLE added to your menu. Make sure you click the blue SAVE button on the right
Step 19: Check your website. What happens when you click the Google menu item on your webpage? If you have follow the steps correctly, once you click Google in your menu it should open the Google webpage.
Step 20: Congrats! You now have figured out how to create a custom menu.
