Menus are one of the most powerful attributes of Drupal 7 and have been around since the early days of Drupal. Menus are powerful because they provide ways for your visitors to get to specific pages on the site. Menus are intuitive as well. If you edit the alias or path of a page, the menus do not need to be updated. They simply update on their own as you make changes.
Default Menu Types
By default, there are two menus always visible on your screen, the “Main” menu and the “User” menu. This allows for easy navigation and gives you and your visitors the ability to log into the site from any page. There are two other menus as well, bringing the total number to four. The “Navigation” menu resides in the first sidebar. The navigation menu is a great place to use specific links that may be important to the visitor. The “Management” menu is generally hidden and will appear only when you are logged in as an administrator.
Menu Location
The four basic menus in Drupal 7 are listed below along with their general location on the screen. These general locations may change, depending on your selected theme.
| Menu | Location |
|---|---|
| Main | shows up as tabs on the top page on the left |
| User | shows up on the upper right corner of the page |
| Navigation | shows up as a menu on the “Sidebar” region by default |
| Management | referred to as a hidden block, this menu is not on the screen for your visitors to see |
Now that you are familiar with the different types of menus, you may want to move on to our two part article on creating menus in Drupal 7. If you need further assistance please feel free to ask a question on our support center.
