Wordpress 3 Custom Menus - Finally!

If you have upgraded to the newest version of Wordpress, and are using the new default "Twenty Ten" theme, you might have noticed "Menus" under the "Appearance"-tab.

To show you what it is about, do the following:

1. Click on "Menus" under the "Appearance" tab

2. Click the plus-sign to add a new custom menu

3. Give the menu a name. For example: "Blogging"

4. Select menu items (pages, categories, links) from the boxes at left to begin building your custom menu. You could for example add 4 affiliate links about blogging, 7 categories containing blog posts related to blogging, and 2 pages containing your special blogging offers.

5. You can also make sub-menus, or sub-menus of sub-menus etc. Just drag and drop a menu box a little to the right under the menu point where you want it.

6. To make this show up on your blog, click "Save menu"

7. Click on "Widgets" under the "Appearance" tab.

8. Drag a custom menu on to your widget area. Drop it on "Primary widget area" if you are not sure where to drop it.

9. Click on the little arrow symbol on your new custom menu widget, and select the menu you want to have shown. You may also give it a custom title.

10. "Save", and go check your blog :-)

Why have I sorely missed this functionality, and what does it really do?

Well, when you click on a menu item in your new custom menu, it will automatically show whatever mixture of posts, pages, links etc you chose while setting up the menu.

So basically, you can pull from your existing blog content, and present it in a lot of different ways.

Leverage, anyone?

Any ideas for creative uses are welcome!

EDIT: I have been able to do the above with plugins and paid themes etc before, but I think it is great to see this finally added to the default wordpress installation/theme.