How to Make a Dropdown Menu In WordPress: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

After you have gone to the basics and beginners guide, you already have the idea of hosting, domain, themes, and plugin. If you have already set up your WordPress site, then the next step is to be able to customize it. One of the main element that I have seen people struggle is the inability to use the menu administration area to add a dropdown list of menu categories. Although the WordPress provides us with the means to add categories to a menu, it sometimes becomes a hefty task.

However, there is now an easier technique to achieve this even with zero coding knowledge. Here we have presented you with two ways you can create a drop-down menu on your WordPress site. You can use either of them one with the WordPress menu option and the other with New Page option. Follow us with the step by step guide and soon enough you will easily be able to add and customize the categories on the drop down menu!

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Step-by-step guide to Creating a WordPress Dropdown Menu

1. Creating Drop Down Menu with Menu Option

While creating drop-down menus with the menu option, the user does not have to worry about the menus disappearing when they switch themes or with plugins. You will be able to modify the categories and their order right from the WordPress menu manager.

Login to your admin WordPress account and open your dashboard. There on the menu, you will see the option for Appearance. Click it and choose Menu.

You will then be redirected to a new page that shows the option to either edit the existing menus or add a new one. You can now create your first menu right here.

Name the new menu whatever you want to show on your site. You can then go ahead and click on Create Menu. After you have a new menu, you will be redirected to a new page again.

Once redirected you then want to select the pages that you want to add to your menu. Simply tick off the ones that you want and click Add To Menu.

After adding the pages you need, you need to then add the location of the menu. This part differs along with different themes. Choose the location for your menu and you can now go to your homepage to view your newly created menu.

To create the drop down menu, simply use the drag and drop feature and drag the categories to their parent menu. Here, for example, we have taken New Page 1 and New Page 2 under the parent menu Sample Page. After you are satisfied with the settings, click on Save Menu.  This is the final step and you will see the newly created menu on your front page.

2. Creating a Drop-down menu using WordPress Pages

Creating a drop-down menu using WordPress pages has a drawback is that this option does not support all of the templates. Although most of them now have the feature of a drop-down menu included, the older templates do not have them. Which means that if you are using an older version, this usually disappears.

Login to your admin WordPress account and go to the Dashboard. You will see the option for Page, click it and select Add New. 

Once you are redirected to the new page, add the title as well as a content. On the page attribute box, set the under parent option to no parent. Save the changes and publish your new page. By doing this, you automatically create a new menu item.

To create the drop down menu, simply add new pages and set their page attribution’s parent page to the one that you first created. 

With these techniques, you can easily manage the navigation menus or drop-down menus. You can use these to highlight your exclusive content in a clutter-free way. You can keep your viewers updated as well as easily divert them to important content of your page. Categories in the drop down menu help your users find exactly what they want in just a click.

Extra Tips

• When arranging items on your menu, you will notice that it will appear in the order that you placed them in. So you can drag and arrange them the way you want.
• If you have used WordPress templates, you might have noticed that some of them may have noticed that some of them provide you with the option for a primary and secondary menu. Be sure to check the location of the menu placement and choose the one where you want your menu to be.
• Another way you can use the drop-down menu or navigation menus is by adding them to the Sidebars or other areas that are Widget Ready.

Wrapping It Up

While drop-down menu creating can be a hefty task, you will find it easy soon after you get used to these techniques. Since WordPress allows you to customize everything on your website, editing and creating the menu can be your start. It is one of the basics and easy-to do options before you move on to the next thing. Be creative and create the stunning and user-friendly website to build more traffic using our simple to digest tips, tricks and tutorials.

If you still have any confusions related to this topic of creating a WordPress drop-down menu, then be sure to let us know in the comments down below. We hope this article helped!