SharePoint 2010 : Modify the Top or Left Navigation Bar (part 2)

Modify the Top or Left Navigation Bar in a Publishing Site

In a publishing site, the navigation settings for both navigation bars are in the same page. To get to the navigation management page, open the Site Settings page and click the Navigation link in the Look and Feel section of the page. The Site Navigation Settings page opens, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The Site Navigation Settings page.

On the Site Navigation Settings page, you can define what links and headings each navigation bar will have—and you can add, remove, or change the order of those links. The top navigation bar is referenced on this page as Global Navigation, and the left navigation bar is called Current Navigation.

In a subsite, this page has more options, as you can see in Figure 5. Here, you can set whether the site should display the same top or left navigation options as its parent site or whether it should have its own set of navigation bar links.

Figure 5. The Site Navigation Settings page for a subsite.

The first option on the page is whether the navigation bars should show subsites under the current site and whether the navigation bars should show pages.

Add a Link to the Top or Left Navigation Bar

To add a link to either navigation bar, click the Global Navigation node (for the top navigation bar) or Current Navigation node in the Navigation Editing and Sorting box. Then click the Add Link option in the menu. This selection opens a dialog where you can specify the link to be added (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Adding a link to a navigation bar.

In the Title box, you can specify what text the link displays to the user. Also, you can either type in a link or browse to a page in the site by using the Browse button. You can also specify whether the link is opened in a new window when clicked.

Add a Heading to the Top or Left Navigation Bar

In a publishing site, you can add headings to both the top and left navigation bars. A heading in a publishing site can be a link or just text that can have other links under it.

To add a heading, simply click the Global Navigation node (for the top navigation bar) or Current Navigation node in the Navigation Editing and Sorting box. Then click the Add Heading button in the menu. The dialog that pops up is the same as the one for adding a link (refer to Figure 13.13), but unlike with adding a link, in this case you can keep the URL setting empty if you don’t want the heading to be a link.

Edit a Link or a Heading in the Top or Left Navigation Bar

To edit a link or heading from either navigation bar, click the link or heading in the Navigation Editing and Sorting box, and then click the Edit button on the toolbar. The dialog for the link’s setting opens, allowing you to specify how this link should behave (refer to Figure 6).

Remove a Link from the Top or Left Navigation Bar

To remove a link from either navigation bar, click the link in the Navigation Editing and Sorting box, and then click the Delete button on the toolbar.

Change Which Heading a Link Is Under

To select the heading for a link in a publishing site, move the link up or down in the Navigation Editing and Sorting box until it is under the heading you want. Select the link, and then use the Move Up and Move Down buttons (refer to Figure 4) to move the link in or out of headings.