There’s a little known button concealed in the screen options menu that will allow you to have your links open in a new browser window.

Standard web practice is NOT to have links open in new windows as it is thought that in the end there would be to many windows open which will inconvenience the user.

It’s acceptable to have some external links, like social media open in new windows. Also links to documents like PDF’s is good practice to open in a new window.

So where is this mysterious function? Start by navigating to Appearance > Menus in the admin menu of your WordPress site.

Step 1

It’s always easy when you know where things are.

My clients questions are a constant source of blog post inspiration. Frances Vettergreen inspired this tutorial when she asked;

“I’d like to group the menu selections for the art and the info (statement, cv etc); is there a way to insert a space in there?

In other words what Frances wants to do is this:

With a space to separate her texts and portfolios. In essence insert a space between By Series and Bio/CV.

Here are 3 tricks and tips for using WordPress Menus to accomplish what Frances what’s to do.

OPTION 1

With WordPress Menus you can create as many menus as you like. Using WordPress Widgets you can add menus to your sidebar or any widget area using the Custom Menu widget.

There’s only one draw back to using the menu widget to split your main navigation. Often the widgets style (font sizes and colours) could be different from the styling of the main navigation. They are in Artbiz themes in order to apply importance to elements.  Your menu could look like the image below, not ideal.

OPTION 2

This option keeps the menu styling the same for all items.

To do this create a custom menu item and change the label to an underscore or another symbol to break the line. Once it is added to the menu open it and remove the link.

On the live site it looks like this…better. The styling of all the menu items remains consistent.

OPTION 3

Simulate nesting by indenting with a keyboard symbol. For example…

This is so simple, you’re going to wonder why you never thought of this.

Inside your WordPress admin go to Appearance > Menus and select your main menu.

Each menu item expands down by clicking the downward arrow in the top right corner.

Under “Navigation Label” type in a keyboard symbol. Ideas could be…
: Featured
:: Current Work
~ Small Fruit
– Plein Air
| By Series

Portfolio and Texts can be dummy parents, meaning they are menu items with the links removed. To do this add a custom menu item to the menu and then once it’s in there open it and remove the link. To further differentiate PORTFOLIOS and TEXTS could be all capitals.

There’s a full tutorial on menus including the steps to make a dummy parent at https://artbiz.ca/school/appearance-options/create-and-manage-wordpress-menus/

The label does not have to be the exact page title that you entered in the editor. As the example below shows, I shortened the label and added a title attribute which is a tool tip that appears when a visitor hovers over the menu item.

There you have 3 tricks & tips for using WordPress Menus. Which option do you like the best?