Admin Help: Top Navigation

Top Navigation

Here is a 10 minute demo on our Top Navigation for reference.

Once you have logged in, click on your name in the top right of the site.

You can also get to the Navigation dashboard within an actual drop down. If you click on a drop down, you will see an option for "Edit Navigation". 

Click on "Configuration", then "Top Links" from the list of tabs on the left of the Configuration dashboard. 

The "Top Links" dashboard will display a list of your links. 

You can also click the side arrows to open your drop downs menus and access your sublinks. You can select the compass icon to drag and drop any link and sublink within the drop downs while you are in this dashboard. To edit existing links click on the pencil icon. From there you can edit the title, the link or the icon if applicable.

It's always good to look at how your navigation looks and compare it to your Top Links dashboard to understand the setup.

When you are ready to add a link, click the button that says "Add Top Link". Keep in mind the 3 options for link types: 

1. Drop Down with headings - Create columns with headings and links listed under those headings
2. Drop Down with icons - Create sub-links under the top link name with icons and description text
3. Traditional - no drop down
4. Link to File - Link to a Google or Microsoft Sharepoint file with a shared link

The descriptions under the different styles of drop-down menus will help you decide what top link will work best for your setup. The "Dropdown with headings" can hold the most links underneath it, while the "Traditional link" will just be one link.  

The next portion of this article will describe the setup of each navigation option. 

1. Drop down with headings

The drop down with headings option can have up to 4 headings that all have their own list of sub-links. The sub-links can point internally or to any external URL, just like all the other link options available. Try to keep your sub-links under 10 per column if possible or you will get a scroll bar.

This screenshot is a great example of best practices for your list with heading drop down. These headings accommodate a column for each of your users, along with a generic column for other content.

To build the drop down with headings, get to the Top Links dashboard from the Configuration page.

Click "Add Top Link" and select Dropdown with headings.

The screen shot below is the next window. The title you put in here will be the title of the drop down and will appear in the top navigation bar. Best practices for this could be District Information at the district site, or School Information at a school site.

Once you have named your Top Link, that heading will appear in the Navigation menu (show below). When you hover over the title, you will see 4 icons appear on the right in the same row as the title. To add your column headings click the "+" sign.

Give it a Title. We recommend using 4 columns titled as seen in Figure 1 above for best practices. "Parents", "Students", "Staff", and maybe a general column for other content called "School" or "District". SchoolBlocks will most likely have set up all this when your district came on board.

Once you have all your headings titled, you can click on the arrow to open up your drop down, then click on the "+" sign next to each heading to add your sub-links.

Now that you have your headings set up, you can add sub-links underneath each heading You will have the same options for sub-links  as in the previous link options. When you click on the "+" sign in the row of the Heading you want your sublink to go under, that same window as seen below will appear.

2. Dropdown with Icons

The Dropdown with Icons style menu adds some nice visual aesthetics to your navigation menu. When using the Dropdown with Icons, you will want to limit the amount of links to 12 or less to avoid cropping issues on smaller screens, like Chromebooks.  Please also note the length of the titles, anything over 26-28 characters will be cut off. Links with lengthy titles are best as sub-links under a heading.  Below is an example of our best practices, up to 12 items with concise titles, descriptive text and icons.

When you select the option "Dropdown with Icons", add a heading name, like "Departments". Something general so that links like "Curriculum" and "Child" can both be placed under the same "Heading". When a user hovers over the Heading, the drop down will open up.

Once you have created your "Heading", you will notice the the new "Heading" will show up in the main Top Links dashboard as seen below.

Click on the plus sign next to the "Heading" to add "Sub Links" to that heading.  

Once you click on the "+" sign, you will see a familiar window and you will be asked what style of sublink you would like to create. Again, there are three options: "Link to an External Page", "Link to an Existing Page" and "Create a New Page". 

The only difference between the links that will go underneath this "Heading" and the "Traditional Links" or the nest style drop down with headings are the descriptions of the links themselves and the actual icon. The setup of the links is the same as the "Traditional Link" described earlier in this article. If you need help adding the sublinks under this style of drop down, please refer to the top of this page.  

3.Traditional Link

When you click on the "Traditional Link" option, there are three options as seen below. 

1. Link to an external page - Requires an external URL 
2. Link to an existing page  - Takes the user to a previously created page, or an internal page. 
3. Create a new page - Create a blank page within one of the sites internal page collections.  

Once you have selected the type of traditional link you would like to use, you will be prompted to fill in the appropriate fields for each link type. This screen shot shows the fields needed for adding an external link. 

If you choose "Link to Existing Page", the dashboard will require a title and the page to have already been created in one of the sites internal page collections. If the page has been created, you will ned to type the title of the page in the "Select Page" field. If you type the first few letters of the page, it should list those results. 

The final option when setting up a Traditional Link is to "Create a new page".  This is a great option for creating a blank new page right here from the top navigation dashboard and not from your internal page collections. The screenshot below shows the fields needed. Your page type will determine which internal page collection it will be part of. Keep in mind, if you want to show staff in the staff block, Departments or Groups (at schools) need to be chosen.

With any of the options described above, you will want to make sure you click on the "Add Link" button once you are happy with your Traditional Link to add it to your Top Navigation bar. It is best practice to avoid two rows in your top navigation as it creates a very large navigation bar. SchoolBlocks should have most of the Top Navigation and drop downs set up when you come on board.

4.Link to a File

This option allows you to link to a Google or Microsoft Sharepoint files so they open within your site and not in Google or Office drives. There is also a drop down just like you see in the Files Block to choose a translated version of the document that will appear when that language is selected from the language tool.

Use the "File Picker" for Google. Paste the shared link for Sharepoint.