Creating a menu on a blog post

• 

  joungeheuer · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:12 pm

  • Copy link
  • Add topic to favorites

  Hey, I am trying to create a menu for a single Blog Post only. I want the menu to help navigate through the blog post so that you can find what you are looking for faster than scrolling thought the blog post. For context, I use my blog posts as a module/research journal for my masters course but will brake it up into 5 categories which then will be posted in in a day by day order. I want to create this menu so you can quickly jump to the main 5 topics of research without having to scroll through the page (my first semester had about 20 000 words +-)
  Would be great to hear some suggestions. p.s. I am using the online site only and the free version, not afraid of writing code myself.

  Thank you very much.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:16 pm

  • Copy link

  Hey, I am trying to create a menu for a single Blog Post only.

  Custom menus apply to sites not to posts or pages.

  You begin by assigning categories to your posts.

  This is a one or the other situation. You have two choices on any blog
  (1) All posts on the front page.
  (2) Or a static front page http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/ and all posts on a different page.

  By default the front page of a blog displays all published posts in reverse chronological order with the most recently published post on top. When we publish a post on WordPress software the software automatically creates the same entry in the Archives, and on the dynamic (automatically updating) Categories and Tags pages in accord with the Categories and Tags we assign to that post.

  So when we create custom menu and add the dynamic (automatically updating) category pages to that custom menu we create the appearance (not the reality) of posting to more than one page.

  You need to be aware that:

  1. There are differences between posts and pages described here
  https://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/

  2. There are differences between static pages we bloggers create https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/ that will not automatically update, and dynamic category pages created by the software when you publish a post which will automatically update https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/.

  3. We organize posts by category assignment prior to publication. http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/ and when we publish posts the dynamic category pages they automatically display on are determined by the categories we assign to them.

  So the process you need to use is:

  a. Assign Categories to your Posts. https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories

  b. Create a custom menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#1-create-a-custom-menu

  c. Add only the dynamic category page links into the custom menu that you want to appear in that menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-category-pages and arrange them as you wish them to appear https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menus

  d. Create pages and sub-pages for static content, not for posts https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/

  e. Add any custom links and other items like static pages and sub-pages into your custom menu
  https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-custom-links https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-pages
  and arrange them as you wish them to appear https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menus

  Please see https://en.support.wordpress.com/customizer/

• 

  joungeheuer · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:35 pm

  • Copy link

  Thank you fro your quick response but I don’t think this is what I’m looking for. Let me try and explain it differently. … I would ideally like headings that are clickable to other parts of the same posts. that its like a small menu within a post. I use only one post per semester so they get huge but I would like to have a way for myself or my lecturer to be able to click on a heading ( that is somehow linked to the Id of a header for a part in my post) and that they will be sent to that part of the post. I don’t want to create a meu for different posts.

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:43 pm

  • Copy link

  If you assign categories to your posts they appear on the posts and when clicked they take the viewer to the dynamic categories page where all posts assigned to that category will appear in order of date of publication.

  If you create a custom menu and add the dynamic category pages into it clicking the heading does the same thing.

  If you link any word or phrase within any post to the relevant dynamic categories page you get the same result as above.

  If you place a categories widget in the sidebar it can be used to locate all posts assigned to the category.

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:45 pm

  • Copy link

  See: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/page-jumps-from-page-menu-at-top?replies=11

  You can create page jump links on any Page to any number of sub-pages but what’s the point of doing that when all sub-pages added to a custom menu will have their own links in the custom menu?

  You can create a Page and use page jump links. https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/

  See http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/
  http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/links-to-specific-points-on-a-page/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/page-jumps/

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:46 pm

  • Copy link

  P.S. You can create a Post and use page jump links in it also.

• 

  joungeheuer · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:46 pm

  • Copy link

  Does this work when everything is in the same post. I don’t want to switch posts or to change pages. all i want is to find a specific … article, lets say, in side the same post. Maybe more comparable with keywords.

• 

  joungeheuer · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:47 pm

  • Copy link

  Thank you so much for taking your time. I am very new to this and appreciate your time.
  Thank you

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:50 pm

  • Copy link

  Then all you need to know is how to create links within a post.

  If you are not adept at coding then create a draft post that you will later delete and do the link creation in it. After you use the Visual editor click into the HTML editor and copy and paste the content into a text widget.

  See the guide for creating links in posts and pages: http://en.support.wordpress.com/links/

  This is the general link model:

  <a href="URL HERE">Highlighted anchor text here</a>

  This is the visual result – it’s not actually linked here in the forum.
  Highlighted anchor text here

  1. Enter the relevant descriptive anchor text you want to link to first. Note that “here” is not a good choice. Use relevant anchor text to link to. Such as the dynamic category page titles in your case.
  

  2. Then use your mouse to highlight that anchor text. (If you don’t highlight the anchor text the chain icon will remain grayed out and not be useable.)

  3. Next, click the chain icon in the editor and proceed to create the link.

  For editing the same post over and over again which is what you seem to be describing see Go Back and Edit Posts https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/#go-back-and-edit-posts

  Also note: For creating links in a text widget and adding images see:
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/links/text-widget-links/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/#adding-an-image

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:52 pm

  • Copy link

  P.S. Widgets have visibility settings that control which pages they appear on. See https://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/#widget-visibility

• 

  timethief · Member · Feb 17, 2017 at 4:53 pm

  • Copy link

  You’re welcome.