Working With Section Menus

Managers can add, edit and manage their section's menu items.

How to add a section menu link

1. Click on Manage section menus in the administrative menu—this will take you to the Section menus page
2. Click "add link" in the Operations column.
3. From here enter a Menu link title and make sure it's written in title case.
4. Select the page you are creating the link for in the Page drop-down menu.
5. Under the Parent link drop-down menu you can choose:
   • The default value—which will create a new menu link on the top level of your section.
   • Select a page—this will create your menu link as a sublink within the selected page.

Manage your section menu items

1. Click on Manage section menus.
2. Click on list links to access the menu items for that section.
3. From here you can do several things:
   1. Reorder menu items by dragging and dropping the multidirectional icon.
   2. Access the basic page by clicking on its page title.
   3. Enable or disable the menu link to the content type. 
   4. Delete the basic page’s menu item—this will not delete the basic page, only the menu link.

Word of warning

Do not delete a (parent) section menu item that has (child) section menu items within them—delete the child section menu items first or your menu will explode. That's the best way I can describe it. If this happens, please submit an IT Direct ticket for CMS support.

Section menu requirements

Example of the section menu region

What we commonly refer to as a website at WMU is actually a section within the University's content management system. Links in the section menu should point only to pages within the section.

Section menus should contain no more than 12 links, each of which may have up to 12 secondary links. Each section is allowed a maximum of three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary links.

At the top of the menu is the name of the section, which should match title of the section's home page.

Consistency is critical to ease of navigation. Global navigation and tools will be identical on every page. Left-column site navigation will vary depending upon the office or department represented by the section, but common terms, organization and architecture will be used.

Not every site will have a link to Computer Labs, but those that do should all use the same term, "Computer Labs." The link "Directory" should go to the same kind of information on every site where it is used.

Required links for academic departments

• Name of Section
• About
• Academics
• Directory
• Contact Us

Writing style guide

The following applies to all sections representing offices and departments of the University.

• All menu items use title case (capitalize all key words).
• Do not use ampersands (&), and do not use all caps.
• Two links—Name of Section (home) and Contact Us—are required. Name of Section is always the first link in the menu. Contact Us is always the last link. Directory, if used, should be above Contact Us. All other links should be listed alphabetically.

Rules for Polcies

• If "Policies" appears in the section menu, it must link to a page that provides links to the section's policies housed on the Policies website. No policies should be housed as basic pages within the section itself.
• The term "policy" is reserved for board-approved and board-delegated policies, all of which should be moved to the Policies website. If a section has content that will not be moved to the Policies website—such as departmental policies—that content should no longer be called a "policy" and should be renamed to use a different term; e.g., procedure, rules, guidelines.

Standard links

Listed are common links for WMU web sections. The list indicates the name of the link, where the link should be placed, and a recommended URL. No office or department is expected to include all of the information implied by the links, but if, as an example, a mission statement is included, the name of the link should be "Mission," and it should be under "About."

• Name of Section (required on all pages) links to the home page of the unit site
• About (required for academic units) </about> is a description of the office, department or academic discipline
  • Accreditation </about/accreditation>
  • Affiliations </about/affiliation>
  • Committees </about/committee>
  • Facilities </about/facility>
  • Fast Facts </about/facts>
  • History </about/history>
  • Leadership </about/leaders>
  • Mission </about/mission>
  • Mission and Goals </about/mission>
  • Mission and Vision </about/mission>
  • Points of Pride </about/pride>
  • Publications </about/publications>
• Academics (required for academic units) </academics> (contains program information or links to programs—undergraduate majors and minors, graduate programs—if there is more than one)
  • Advising (required for academic units) </academics/advising>
    • Appointments (preferably online) </academics/advising/appointments>
    • General Information </academics/advising/info> 
    • Office Hours </academics/advising/hours>
    • Staff </academics/advising/staff>
  • Centers and Institutes (related to the unit) </academics/centers>
  • Departments (college pages only) </academics/departments>
  • Apply (only if program specific) </academics/apply>
  • Course Schedule </academics/schedule>
  • Course Descriptions </academics/courses>
  • Independent Study </academics/independent>
  • Interdisciplinary Study </academics/interdisciplinary>
  • Internships </academics/internship>
  • Study Abroad </academics/abroad>
• Advising (may be included under academics, required for academic units) </advising>
  • Appointments (preferably online) </advising/appointments>
  • Office Hours </advising/hours>
  • General Information </advising/info>
  • Staff </advising/staff>
• Alumni (unit specific alumni chapter or services) </alumni>
• Career Center (unit specific) </career>
• Certification (certification for students, graduates) </certification>
• Clinics (may be separate link or included under facilities) </clinics>
• Computer Labs (may be included under facilities, computing resources or technology resources) </labs>
• Computing Resources (may include Computer Labs and other computing services and resources) </computing>
• Ensembles (School of Music only) </ensembles>
• Events (unit specific events) </events>
• Exhibitions (may be included under events) </exhibits>
• Facilities (may be separate link or included under about) </facilities>
• Galleries (may be included under facilities) </gallery>
• Giving (unit specific gift opportunities) </giving>
• Hours (required for campus services) </hours>
• Internships (may be included under academics) </internship>
• Research (unit-specific research, research facilities) </research>
• Resources (unit-specific resources) </resources>
• Scholarships </scholarships>
• Services (unit-specific services) </services>
• Student Organizations </groups>
• Technology Resources (if all technology resources are related to computers, use computing resources) </technology>
• Directory (required on all department and office pages) </directory>
• Contact Us (required on nearly all pages) </contact>