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How to Change Menus and Navigation in Joomla

Using WordPress instead? See How to Change Menus and Navigation in WordPress.

In Joomla, each link in your navigation is a menu item. Menu items also control what shows on each page, so a little care goes a long way.

Before you start: changing a menu item's alias changes the page's URL. If the page has been live a while, add a redirect from the old URL.

Find your menu

  1. Log in at yoursite.com/administrator.
  2. Go to Menus and pick the menu you want (for example, Main Menu). Menus > All Menu Items shows every item.

Add a menu item

  1. In the menu, click New.
  2. Enter a Title. This is the text shown in the menu.
  3. Next to Menu Item Type, click Select and choose what the link shows. Common types:
    • Articles > Single Article: one article.
    • Articles > Category Blog or Category List: a list of articles from a category.
    • Contacts, Smart Search, and others: pages from those features.
    • System Links > URL: a link to any address, including another website.
  4. Pick the specific article, category, or URL.
  5. In the right panel, check Menu and set the Parent Item. Leave it as Menu Item Root for a top-level item, or pick another item to make this a submenu item.
  6. Click Save & Close.

Rename a menu item

Open the item, change the Title, and save. The page's URL only changes if you change the Alias.

Reorder menu items

In the menu's item list, drag items by the handle on the left. You can also set Ordering inside an item.

Move an item under another

Open the item and change Parent Item.

Hide or remove a menu item

  • Hide it but keep the page: on the Link Type tab, set Display in Menu to No. Any submenu items under it are hidden too.
  • Turn it off: set Status to Unpublished. The page won't be reachable through that menu item.
  • Delete it: trash it, then empty the trash. Don't remove your Home item (the one marked as Default Page).

Page titles and headings

On the Page Display tab:

  • Browser Page Title: the title in the browser tab and search results.
  • Show Page Heading and Page Heading: whether a heading shows at the top of the page, and its text.

Where the menu shows

Menus are displayed on your site by a Menu module. If a new menu isn't showing, it may need a module. See Joomla Modules Basics: Positions, Assignments, and Visibility.

Related

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