Navigation

Demosphere suggests constructing your site’s departments in the Site Map section before creating the navigation menu on your page. Menu items can be drawn directly from a completed Site Map rather than manually added. Once your Site Map has been set up, begin building your navigation menu directly on your Homepage.

Creating Your Navigation

Use any Add Content button on the Homepage to begin.

  • Under the options for Choose New Content Type to Add, select Navigation Module

  • On the Add Menu view, for a top navigation that runs the width of your page, use the Horiztonal Menu Layout option. For a navigation structure that runs vertically down the side of your page, choose the Vertical Menu Layout option.
  • Typically, your top navigation (Horizontal Layout) has been pre-styled. Use the None/Custom option for the Style Theme to ensure the correct style generates. There are other available styles to try under the Style Theme section which are popular options for your Veritical Navigation Style. 
  • Next, use the Add Item button under Menu Builder to begin your Menu build out. 

Build With Item Types

Menus can be built using Links or by grouping pages in SubMenus

  • Adding pages as links on the menu bar will redirect visitors to that page when the item is clicked. 
  • Submenus will display dropdown menus when a visitor hovers over the item.
  • Links appear next to a blue link symbol in the Menu Builder, while SubMenus appear next to a folder image with green dropdown arrows.

However, if you have already created your Site Map, selecting the Copy from Site Map option can cut down the time spent creating menus.

When using the Copy from Site Map item type, you are able to Select a Department from your pre-made Site Map. Selecting one of the departments will automatically add the department, as well as links and subdepartments associated with that department.

For example, copying the Travel department from the Site Map will also add the Boys and Girls subdepartments along with their corresponding links.

Copy each department from the Site Map to the navigation menu options to save time manually adding link URLs and duplicating the Site Map structure. Once the navigation menu has been saved, menu items will appear on your page as links and dropdowns according to the specifications that have been set in your Menu Builder.

Once you have created your navigation structure, you can use the yellow icons to revise the order of the display both horizontally - and - within the submenu structure. If you need to remove or rename navigation options, hover over the navigation option and click on the blue edit icon that appears. 

Editing Your Existing Navigation

If you built your navigation bar directly on your Homepage, you can continue to edit and update your navigation directly on the Homepage. Hover over your Navigation Item until the blue edit icon appears to access your Edit Menu view. 

Note: If your navigation is not editable directly on your Homepage, navigate your Dashboard and access your Template Manager. In most cases, if the menu is not editable on your Homepage directly, it will be editable on your Homepage Template.

 

 

Force Navigation to Display on All Website Pages

After the navigation has been created and saved, it can be cloned in the remaining templates (typically your Department and Default templates). You will not have to rebuild the navigation menu for each page by using the Cloning Process.