- Sometimes the true power of a feature only becomes apparent when you combine it with another feature, and that is definitely the case with menus and widgets. You see, one of the widgets available to you is called custom menu, and it allows you to add a custom menu to your widgetized area. This opens up almost unlimited options where linking is concerned. To see why this is so valuable, let's just briefly jump to the front end of the site. You'll remember that previously I created two custom menus, and then I set those custom menus up to display in the menu locations of my current theme.
That would be the primary menu here, and then the social media menu. You'll also remember I added some widgets, and those included things like recent posts, some recent comments and pages and so on. The problem is, in many cases you will want to create some sort of custom menu. That could be a custom menu pointing to specific posts within your site, or specific pages. It could be a custom menu pointing elsewhere on the web to your favorite sites, or it could be something like a list of your favorite images and attachment pages, or really anything you can think of.
The magic of the web is that you can link anywhere you want, and it would be great if we could create custom menus to place anywhere we wanted on the site, make them point anywhere we want. And that's exactly what we can do with this custom menu widget. So let's create a custom menu that points to some of my favorite sites on the web and place it in a widgetized area. First, I need to go to the customizer and create my custom menu. So I'll click menus, add a new menu, my favorite links, click create menu, and then I'll add some items.
And here I'm going to create a list of custom links, so I'll say lynda.com/mor10's courses on lynda.com. And then I'll say alistofpart.com, and my own website, and once I'm done creating this menu, I can jump back to the main customizer. Now all I have to do is add the widget, so I'll go to widgets and the correct widget area, then I'll click add a widget, find custom menu, and I'm going to drag this all the way up to the top right under the search bar here.
Then I can give my new custom widget a title, so I'll call it my favorite links. And then use this selector to select the menu in question. Now you can see my new custom menu appear in my sidebar as a list of links, and because this is a custom menu, I can now go back to my custom menu and reorganize the items, or add in new items or change where they link to, or add other information, and do pretty much whatever I want. So this is a really powerful tool that you can use to create custom navigation all over your site.
I often use this to create custom navigation at the footer of my sites to point to specific pieces of content within my site, maybe all my legal pages, or all my about pages, or something like that. Or I may use it to create custom links like you see here to elsewhere on the web. What I like about this is because this is a custom menu, always go back to the custom menu, and reorganize the content or change the structure of the content, you can see if I indent things they get indented, and really make the menu work exactly the way I want.
And anytime I want to add new content, simply click add item, and I can add any item that I would add to a regular menu, including any post, any page, any category index, any tag index, any post format, or any custom link of my choosing. Really powerful, really easy to use, and now you know how to do it too.
Author
Updated
6/11/2018Released
8/17/2015Note: This course covers an older version of WordPress, which features the Classic Editor. Watch this course only if you are using the Classic Editor plugin or using WordPress 4.9 or earlier. Otherwise, watch WordPress 5 Essential Training, which covers the new Block Editor experience.
- Creating posts and pages
- Formatting text
- Publishing and scheduling posts
- Adding images, audio, and video
- Bulk editing posts and pages
- Customizing themes and menus
- Using widgets
- Extending WordPress with plugins
- Editing users profiles
- Configuring settings
- Getting new readers
- Keeping WordPress up to date and secure
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Introduction
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Welcome1m 30s
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What's new in 4.7?1m 45s
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1. Getting to Know WordPress
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What is WordPress?3m 30s
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2. Getting Started
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How WordPress works2m 34s
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Using the WordPress toolbar3m 28s
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3. Creating Posts
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Understanding posts1m 59s
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Posts vs. pages in WordPress2m 19s
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Creating a new post1m 38s
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Using categories and tags6m 10s
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Using revisions3m 30s
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Using post formats3m 52s
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4. Adding Images and Media
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Creating image galleries5m 30s
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Using featured images3m 44s
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Working with audio and video2m 18s
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5. Creating Pages
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When to use pages1m 59s
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Creating a page2m 4s
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Using page templates2m 10s
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6. Managing Content
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Navigating the admin panel4m 25s
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Using the Media Grid5m 11s
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Using attachment pages5m 44s
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7. Changing the Appearance of Your Site
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Introducing the Customizer7m 15s
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Customizing your theme8m 33s
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Using widgets6m 44s
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8. Extending WordPress with Plugins
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9. Users and User Profiles
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How WordPress handles users1m 34s
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Editing your user profile7m 42s
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Adding and managing users5m 33s
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10. Configuring Settings
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11. Getting, and Interacting with, Readers
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Keeping up to date6m 59s
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Going further with WordPress2m 29s
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Video: Combining custom menus and widgets