Choose a clear header menu

1. Look at the current header

Visit the practice site and look at the links at the top. Our theme currently lists About, Advice and Home in alphabetical order. This automatic Page List adds published pages for us. We want Home first, followed by About and Advice, and we want to choose which links appear when we add pages later.

2. Open the existing navigation

From the Dashboard, choose Appearance → Editor, then Navigation. Open Actions for the existing navigation and choose Edit. If an introductory guide appears, choose Get started. We are editing the menu itself. Leave the Home page body, template and footer as they are.

3. Find the automatic Page List

Choose Document Overview in the top toolbar to open List View. Expand Navigation, then select Page List. Use the arrow beside the row, or select Navigation and press the Right Arrow key. Check that the list contains About, Advice and Home. Selecting Page List makes its Edit control appear in the block toolbar.

4. Read the change before confirming

Choose Edit in the Page List toolbar. Read the Edit Page List message. It explains that editing lets you add, remove and reorder links, and new pages will no longer be added automatically. For this course copy, that is the behavior we want. Choose Edit in the confirmation dialog.

5. Keep the existing destinations

The outline now shows About, Advice and Home as separate links. These pages already exist; converting the list did not create new pages. Keep all three. We will change their order next. When adding links later, choose the intended existing page and check its destination.

6. Move Home to the front

Select Home in List View. In its block toolbar, choose Move left twice. Check the order in both the outline and the header: Home, About, Advice. About should be second and Advice third. The movement controls arrange links; they do not move the pages or change their content.

7. Save, reopen and check the order

Choose Save in the top toolbar and wait for the change to finish. In this direct Navigation editor, our Save completes in one click. A different editor screen may ask you to review changes first; save only the intended navigation change. Reload the editor. Open Document Overview and expand Navigation again. Check that Home, About and Advice remain in that order. This checks the saved menu, rather than relying on an unsaved preview.

8. Follow all three links in a wide view

Open the normal site address in a separate signed-out browser window. The header should read Home, About, Advice, with no editing bar. Follow every link. Home should show the introduction and checklist; About should show the truthful course paragraph; Advice should show the post list. Return to Home through the header after checking the destinations.

9. Check the narrow menu and keyboard

Make the visitor window narrow. Open the menu and follow Home, About and Advice again. Check that each opens the same destination as in the wide view. For a keyboard check, press Tab until Open menu has focus, then press Enter. Check the three links in the open menu. Press Escape to close it. Open it again, press Tab until Close menu has focus, and press Enter to close it. The screenshot shows the real menu at a 390-pixel width.

Practise

Open the site while signed out. Use only the header to reach Home, About and Advice, then repeat in a narrow window. Use Tab and Enter to open and close the menu and try Escape. Explain what will happen when a new Page is published after converting the automatic list.

Check your result

One saved header navigation shows Home, About and Advice in that order. Each link reaches the intended existing page in wide and narrow views. The narrow menu opens and closes with the tested keyboard controls. Page content, the advice post and its labels, the checklist and Reading settings are preserved.

Optional notes