Creating a drop down menu, or a sub-menu, is a popular way to increase the functionality of your site and to keep your articles organized and presentable. Assuming that you've already created menu items, this article will discuss how to create drop down menu items. These are also referred to as sub-menu items. It’s very important to note that not all templates support drop down menus items. Before attempting to add a drop down menu item, review your template settings to be sure your template supports drop down menus.

First, log in to the Administration area (the back end) of your site. Once you’re there, go to the Menu tab and then to Menu Manager.

menumanager

Once inside the Menu Manager, select the menu you’d like to work with. For the purpose of this article, we will work with only one menu titled Main Menu.

selectmenu

Once you’re looking at the menu items for the particular menu you’d like to work with, select the “New” button to create a new menu item. In the example images, we’re going to create a drop down menu item for an article on Joomla! 3.0 This will appear under the Category Blog Menu Item.

menuitems

Once in the New Menu Item, you’ll want to do the following:

First, select which Menu Item Type you'll work with.

selecttype

For the purpose of this article, we will use a Single Article Menu Item Type so next, select Single Article under Articles.

singlearticle

 Next:

  1. Select the article you would like to connect to this menu item.
  2. Create a Title for your Menu, this is what will actually appear on your menu.
  3. Check the Menu Location - this should already show the menu you want to add the drop down to, if not, select which menu you want to add the drop down menu item to.

 dropdownsettings

Next, under Parent Item, select the parent item under which the new Menu Item will appear. This is an important step – this is where you actually tell Joomla! to make this a drop down menu item.

parentitem

Once you save your work and return to the Menu Manager, you’ll see the new article you created. Notice how it is indented underneath the parent item. This is how you can be sure it is a drop down menu item.

menuitemindent

Return to the front end of your site. The drop down menu item should appear underneath the parent item when you hover your mouse over the parent item. If the main menu is active in any other location, the drop down menu item will also appear there.

 submenupage

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