VIU Campus

Structure Your Site

In order to allow visitors to your VIUBlogs site to find the content you want them to see, it is important to add structure to your VIUBlogs site. If you use posts on your site, you can use tags and categories to guide visitors to related content in addition to a more static site menu. 

Set Up Your Site Menu

A menu is a collection of links that persists across all pages on your site and helps visitors navigate from one section of the site to another. Pages that are not linked to a menu may be difficult for visitors to find. It's important when planning your site to think about how you want visitors to navigate your content and to set up a menu that helps them do that. The appearance and location of your site menu is determined by your site theme. No matter which theme you choose, you can follow the steps below to configure and customize a menu for your VIUBlogs site.
  1. Log in to VIUBlogs and view the site you wish to edit.
  2. Click Customize in the black bar at the top of the screen to open a customize menu on the left side of the page. 
  3. Click Menus from the navigation sidebar. 
  4. Click the Create New Menu button.
  5. Give your new menu a name and click the checkbox for Primary Menu.
  6. Click the Next button.
  7. Click the Add Items button to begin adding items to your menu. 
  8. Create your navigation menu:
    • By default, you will see a list of all the available Pages on your site. You can add these pages by clicking the plus icon next to the name of the Page you wish to add. If you wish to add Posts to your menu, click on the Posts heading. Then, click the plus icon next to the post you wish to add to your menu.
    • You can also add Events, Categories, Tags, and Event Categories to your navigation menu. This webpage will mostly be focusing on adding Posts and Pages to a navigation menu, as these are the most commonly used options.  
    • Once your posts and pages have been added to the menu, you can reorganize the order that they appear in by dragging and dropping the Posts/Pages in this list. 
    • You can also categorize Posts/Pages underneath another Post/Page by dragging and dropping the Post/Page to the right of the Post/Page you would like it to appear under. Doing so will mean that users will need hover over the Post/Page in the navigation menu in order to see all the available options.
  9. If you want to have newly created pages automatically added to your menu, check the box under Menu Options labelled "Automatically add new top-level pages to this menu"
  10. Once you have finished editing, click the Publish button to save your changes.

You can add additional menus to your site which can be displayed in another location on your site by adding a menu widget.

Once you have added items to your menu, you may want to reorder your menu. You can also create drop down menus off the main menu by nesting links inside of another menu item. As you make changes from the Customize menu, you will be able to preview these changes on your site to make sure you're happy with your menu setup before clicking Publish.

  1. Go to the site you wish to edit (you will need to be logged in to make changes).
  2. Click Customize in the black bar at the top of the screen to open a customize menu on the left side of the page. 
  3. Click Menus from the navigation sidebar. 
  4. Click on the menu you want to edit
  5. To move a menu item, left click on the item and drag it to where you want it to go.
    • To nest an item under another item, drag the nested item slightly to the right. The item will appear indented on the editing bar.
    • Once you have finished editing, click the Publish button to save your changes.

If you prefer not to use drag and drop to reorder the menu, you can click Reorder (located right beside Add Items) and then use the arrows on each item option to shift items.

  1. Go to the site you wish to edit (you will need to be logged in to make changes).
  2. Click Customize in the black bar at the top of the screen to open a customize menu on the left side of the page. 
  3. Click Menus from the navigation sidebar. 
  4. Make any changes:
    • Use Add Item to add additional items to the menu
    • Click on an item to rename it, edit the URL, or delete that item from the menu
  5. Once you have finished editing, click the Publish button to save your changes.

Organize Your Blog with Categories and Tags

Each post in WordPress is filed under a category. Thoughtful categorization allows posts to be grouped with others of similar content and aids in the navigation of a site. If you choose not to set up categories, all posts will be filed under the Uncategorized category.

A tag is a keyword which describes all or part of a Post. Think of it like a Category, but smaller in scope. A post may have several tags, many of which relate to it only peripherally. Like Categories, Tags are usually linked to a page which shows all posts having the same tag. Unlike Categories, Tags can be created on-the-fly, by simply typing them into the tag field.

  1. When creating (or editing) a post, select Post at the top of the right hand settings panel to see settings for the overall post
  2. Click Categories to view a list of existing categories for your site
  3. Check the box beside the category (or categories) you want to add to the post or click Add New Category to create a new category
  4. When you are finished, click Publish (or Update) to save your changes
  1. When creating (or editing) a post, select Post at the top of the right hand settings panel to see settings for the overall post
  2. Click Tags
  3. Type the tag you want to add in the provided box. To add multiple tags, press enter after each tag or separate tags with commas
  4. When you are finished, click Publish (or Update) to save your changes

You can add, edit, and delete categories through your site dashboard.

  1. Go to your site's dashboard
  2. Click Posts on the left-hand menu and then click Categories
  3. To add a category fill in the fields on the left side of the page and then click Add New Category
  4. To edit a category, hover your cursor over the Category on the right and click Edit. Once you have made your changes, click Update.
  5. To delete one or more categories, check the boxers next to the category and then set the Bulk Actions drop down to Delete. Click Apply.

You can add, edit, and delete tags through your site dashboard.

  1. Go to your site's dashboard
  2. Click Posts on the left-hand menu and then click Tags
  3. To add a category fill in the fields on the left side of the page and then click Add New Tag
  4. To edit a Tag, hover your cursor over the Tag on the right and click Edit. Once you have made your changes, click Update.
  5. To delete one or more tags, check the boxers next to the category and then set the Bulk Actions drop down to Delete. Click Apply.