To help in visualizing a new website project we begin by developing the menu navigation and establishing a site map based on data collected from our client. Setting up a menu in Joomla! is fairly straight forward, but there is a way we've found to be great at doing so very efficiently.
We begin by setting up a filler article. A filler article is simply loren ipsum or similar added to a menu item in order to ensure your navigation is functioning correctly. We came across a handy extension for creating filler articles which can be downloaded here: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/news-production/content-management/2870.
Our Joomla! menu setup procedure is as follows:
- Create the Filler article
- In your admin navigate to the menu manager
- Administrator >> Menu >> Menu Manager
- Create a new menu group
- Give it a unique name
- Note: No spaces or other characters other than letters
- Title, description and module title can all be the same
- Create individual menu items for menu group you just created
- Change each menu item type to Article
- Connect each menu item to the filler article
- Now: Go to Extensions >> Module manager
- Distribute and position
