In the previous section, we described how to post Featured articles to your Home page, how to create a Category Blog Menu Item and how to create a Category list menu item. In this section, we will review the other two ways to display articles. These are to create a Single Article Menu Item under a Category Menu Item or create a Single Article Menu item and place it in the top level of our main menu.

Create a Single Article Menu Item under a Category Menu Item

If a single article is not placed as a “Featured Article” on your HOME page and is not assigned to a Blog Category or List Category, it will need a Single Article Menu item in order to be viewed. Single Article Menu Items are generally not placed in the top level menu. In the previous sections, we set up the top level category blog menu items in our main menu. We will now create menu items for single articles, or single pages, which we will then place under those top level categories in the Main Menu. This is done in addition to creating the category blog and/or list menu items. To create a Single Article menu item, click on Menus, Main Menu. Then click on NEW to open the New Menu Item screen. Click on the blue Select button to open the Select Menu Item screen. Then click on Articles and select Single Article.

This will return us to the Menu Item Edit screen.

Click on the Grey Select button. This will take us to the Article Manager where we can click on the article we want to associate with this menu item. Note that we first need to make an article in order to select it. You can also give the menu item a title. This does not need to be the same as the title of the article. Ideally the title of menu items should be a shortened version of the title of the article so as not to take up too much space in the main menu or in a drop down menu. Below is what the New Menu Item screen looks like after selecting our first article and giving it a title.

In this section, we will describe three ways to display a new article and provide examples of each. The first way is to simply place the article as a Featured Article on your Home page, which by default is a blog page. The second way places the article in a blog which is not on the Home page. The third way, category list, creates a table of articles assigned to that category. In section 5.3 we will review the other two ways which are to create links to your article in the Main Menu or in a drop down sub menu below a main menu item.

We will start with the simplest way to display an article which is to view it on the Home page of your website.

Websites consist not just of text and images but also links to navigate between pages. When viewers visit your website, you can help them navigate between pages more easily if your Main Menu is set up like the Table of Contents of a book. The visible menu item links in the Main Menu are the chapter titles of the book and the hidden drop down menu items are the sections within each chapter. This article explains why the category structure in your Main Menu should match the category structure used to organize your News articles and images. We also review the Joomla system for creating menu items and displaying articles - which is based on a key concept called Menu Item Types. Joomla offers over two dozen menu item types. We will compare and contrast the most common options.

Before we describe these various menu item link types, we first need to review the importance of using a single horizontal main menu.

Why use a single top horizontal menu?
We recommend that you use a single horizontal drop down menu near the top of your web pages. Below is an example of a News Website single horizontal top menu just below the header:

A multilevel horizontal menu is the most efficient type of menu. There are several reasons to organize your website with a horizontal drop down menu. The first is that your website viewers have been reading books their entire life. They are used to seeing a Table of Contents and having the content organized into Sections, Chapters and Pages. The Main Menu should be a Table of Contents near the top of every page of your website which your viewer can quickly scan through in order to understand the organization of your website and where they might be able to find a particular article they are interested in reading.

Another important reason to use a single horizontal main menu is conservation of space. It is now common for the main area of the website to be taken up with not only text and images, but also videos and feature boxes which Joomla calls modules. In order to provide more room for content and images in the Content section of your web page, the use of additional Menus in the Side Bar is declining. The Main Menu therefore is now commonly inserted as a Horizontal Menu between the Header and the Main Content Area. You therefore do not want the Main Menu to take up a lot of room or be too much of a distraction to the reader. The way to show all of your articles in a limited amount of space is to use a Horizontal “Drop Down Menu” in which all that appears on the opening screen are the BLOG TOPIC CATEGORIES. Most of the actual articles are hidden until the viewer points their cursor over the Category. Pointing the cursor over the categories or clicking on the category displays the TOPIC SUB CATEGORIES.