CHAPTER 9 • Using WordPress As a CMS 235
MANAGING MENUS
Menus need to look good and be easy to maintain; that’s true for just about every website.
When you’re using WordPress as a CMS, this is perhaps even more important. Thanks to the
great menu feature in WordPress discussed in Chapter 6, it’s easy to create the kinds of menus
that you need. Given their importance, you’ll want to give the menus some thought.
There are two primary ways to create menus. First is the menu area, which uses wpnav
menu() to output a predetermined menu area. Using wp_nav_menu() limits you to menus,
as opposed to the second solution, widget areas, but it also lets you name the menu area
appropriately. This makes it easier for the end user when working with the menu.
The second way that you can add menus is by using widget areas. You can use the menu
widget to insert any created menu anywhere you can drop the widget. This can sometimes be
handy but offers less control than the alternative solution. That being said, don’t forget about
this option as it is a great way to offer menus on specific parts of your site that use a particular
widget area. This way, you can let your users create custom menus as the need arises, without
having to touch the code and add wp_nav_menu() all over the place.
Either way, the important thing here is that you utilize the menu feature because it makes it a
whole lot easier for the site administrator to change the menu(s) on the site. If the menu
feature is enabled in your theme, you can check it out under Appearance ➪ Menus, as shown
in Figure 9-2.
Figure 9-2: The Menus interface.