Help talk:Navigation

Additional site navigation
I believe there is a need in some wikis for additional site navigation besides the top links. See:
 * Can sidebar site navigation be returned in a show/hide box? --Timeshifter 21:35, October 8, 2010 (UTC)

Only four navigation items
I noticed that there seems to be a hard limit of four items for the navigation bar at the top of each page. Shouldn't this be noted in the article? --—Sakamoto Mio « Ha ha ha » 02:16, October 18, 2010 (UTC)

"Most popular" does not mean "most popular"
It means "most edited", which is probably NOT what you you want your visitors to look at. When there was a panel for popular pages near bottom left under the old look, Barack Obama's page was near the top of Familypedia's list. It's nowhere near the top of the special page that we are now referred to - that includes pages that hardly anyone would be interested in but which have had one or two people edit again and again (hundreds of times, some of them - including one user page). — Robin Patterson (Talk) 11:40, November 4, 2010 (UTC)

Referring to current page
I'm trying to add a link to the print version of the page in the navigation ( http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Printable ) but the refers to the Mediawiki page instead. How might I go about doing this or similar things? It could be useful for other things too, for example perhaps I want to include a template that acts differently per category or namespace. --Fritzophrenic 05:48, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

List of special names?
Where can I find a list of the special names such as #visited#? I would like a list of newly added pages, specifically, but I'd also like to know what's available. --Fritzophrenic 05:56, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't work
Does this still work for anyone? #category-name#, with a space before the first # otherwise it turns into a number, still doesn't work. You end up with just the name of the category up there with a link to it, and no seven fold down items.  D r e a m Focus  13:21, December 25, 2010 (UTC)

how to
Question: How do i make sub menu's???

I got as far as making mostly what i needed, but ran into the 4 limit, so now i have the first 3 as autofill but i need the 4th to be manual.

but how would i do that? magic word???

*item1#    *item2#      *item3#     *item4 auto       auto         auto        link1 link2

etc etc

Galaxy-A 09:33, March 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * You can see how I did mine at http://gantz.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation or if you want something different, you find a wikia that has it already, and check for their MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation page.  D r e a m Focus  15:45, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

Seriously lacking infomation
This page is seriously lacking. I can't find anywhere to learn how to do anything with the navigation beyond showing the most edited pages. I run the Shameless wiki and I have a menu at the top for series, so all the the series are in a category called series. But not only do only a few show up in the menu, but they appear completely out of order, which looks a little strange, but if I remove the #'s so they don't go in most edited order I don't get a drop down menu anymore, I get literaly this: Category: Series

So no more drop down aswell as the 'Category:' part visible. So I'm guessing I have to do more than the #'s but I just can't find anywhere to learn about such things =/ -- Lyco499 (talk ) 04:27, April 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well I managed to get exactly what I wanted by copying from the source linked by someone above, so thank you to them, but I still don't really get how the code works, which is rather annoying, as I'd much prefer to learn how it works. I don't suppose there's some hidden base of knowledge for wiki code beyond the help pages on every wiki, which leave much to be desired? -- Lyco499 (talk ) 04:33, April 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * You could translate the German help. :P --AB 13:16, April 19, 2011 (UTC)

Special
Special pages enabled? I want a drop down that fills in the most popular pages. Using this Special:Top/most_visited, but the script doesn't like it. Could i get some help? Geniusguy445 (talk)  "Oh wait, this isn't the camera."
 * Sorry for the delayed response, did you get it to work? --Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

link
OK, where's the edit link in the expanded wiki navigation? leohuangchunwang 15:46, December 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * Help page here. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

Sub-submenus
Can you have sub-submenus, i.e. a way of having more than seven pages listed under each heading? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:31, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * This type of navigation is not going to change. For the expanded nav we are going to keep it to how it is for now but I will share your request with the product team. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I thought that the 4x7 was the limit (and I can live with that if it is), but someone on some Wikia site said that there was a way to subdivide the seven. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:42, January 10, 2012 (UTC)

Initial hash sign
One of the recent upgrades to MediaWiki removed the need for starting the "special" links with "#". The illustration seems to follow that. If all Wikia sites are now on the new upgrade, the text should be altered. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:35, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

But I can't get #visited# or visited# to work on w:c:civilization. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:56, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * I hadn't heard that. Is this happening in the new nav as well? Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't know what "new nav" means. I follow the standard skins etc. The problem occurred yesterday, so a check on w:c:civilization:Special:RecentChanges should show the change(s?) I made, and a click on the top item on the "Community" menu will show whatever it shows: it showed nothing for me when I used #visited#. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:42, January 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * By new nav I mean the new expanded navigation that is now available in Wikia Labs. Have you tried it out? It provides for a lot more links in the nav. It turns out that the #visited# tag has been depreciated and should not longer be used. I am going to update the help page now. Sorry for the confusion and thanks for trying it out. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:50, January 10, 2012 (UTC)

This won't work!!!!! How come it keeps sying my level two thing is too wide. I'm not going to delete pages to make the navigation! Please help!DDfan80 00:55, January 24, 2012 (UTC)DDfan80

Expanded Wikia Navigation

 * What wiki? There is a width limit, so it may be you need to adjust how it displays. Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:28, January 24, 2012 (UTC)

The info on this guide was good, but it doesn't work with the Expanded Wikia Navigation, would it be possible to add information for that? I can't figure out how to use it.

GamingGrl24 01:12, March 4, 2012 (UTC)


 * What exactly didn't work and what wiki is it happening on? Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:15, March 5, 2012 (UTC)

Autopopulating no longer works?
Hi everyone, I'm wondering if the following instruction still works on your wikis? Somehow when I use #category-name# with the categories on my wiki, for example: #category-Characters#, the navigation bar only shows the pages in order of creation, and NOT in order of popularity.

''One way to make sure the navigation always shows the most popular content is to use a trick to autopopulate the fields with popular pages or the most linked category pages. This will autopopulate the 7 menu items with the most popular pages.'' To do this, use # symbols around category name.

''For categories, you use #category-name#. So for example, #category-food# will result in the 7 dropdown links being automatically filled with the most popular articles in the category "food".'' Foreva 12:20, April 12, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, Yes we have had issues with these pages not updating, and so we have removed functionality. I have removed that section from the help page. Thanks, Sarah (help forum | blog) 22:45, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Publishing and Saving Errors
Dude, how can i publish my wiki navigaton? There is no "publish" button or "save" button.


 * There should be one - there may be an error where its further down the page. Can you send in a picture, your wiki and browser info to Special:Contact? Thanks, Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:31, June 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * I have unfortunetly the same issue than above. It is not further down the page. I'm using Google Chrome and Google Chrome Canary. Here's a pic . I'm fairly new to wiki editing, so any help's appreciated =) Doo Wacko 15:36, July 11, 2012 (UTC)Doo_Wacko


 * You're running into Wikia's bad UI design. I reported this issue and they told me it was "not a bug". They changed the UI specifically for this page and it isn't obvious what you need to do.
 * YOU MUST PRESS "PREVIEW" to publish changes to MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation. Once you press Preview a Publish button will appear at the bottom right of the Preview window, assuming no errors were found with your changes. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 30 Oct 2012 3:24 PM Pacific

On the Wiki
Is it possable to remove the "On the Wiki" tab from the navigation bar?

Tng88 07:07, June 14, 2012 (UTC)


 * No it is not. Sarah (help forum | blog) 16:33, June 14, 2012 (UTC)

Adding links to "On The Wiki"
Is it possible to add things to the "On the Wiki" tab? For example Forums or Category:File? Essiw 12:32, August 22, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, see http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Common.js for an example. -452 23:47, October 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * The link above is mostly useless without explanation. Also, what Runescape did may not be allowed, see Forum:New wiki navigation: Editing "On the Wiki", or it might be ok (but only based on second-hand assurances), see Forum:How to add Chat to "On the Wiki" Navigation and is it possible to edit "On the Wiki" Navigation?. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 30 Oct 2012 3:33 PM Pacific
 * What can I do, if I just want to translate "On the Wiki" tab to my language? Just half of it is translated and it      is even bad translation. Since Forum you linked is already archived so i cant ask there i ask here. It is said       that to use css for that can be violation (but not neceserialy) i realy cant edit it. Is there any way how to gain
 * an exception so i can translate it? It sounds dull that rulles command you to have that in english especially if
 * it is already translated in half. Mapafius (talk) 15:50, March 7, 2017 (UTC)


 * You can request On the wiki menu to be translated to your language by contacting staff @ Special:Contact/general Minato826 (Talk to ANOOP)(Contributions) 17:37, March 7, 2017 (UTC)

Help
Ummm how can anyone add a list of Administrators onto the navigation, I am having real trouble trying to do just that, can anyone help? Niko Banks (talk) 12:20, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
 * You could link to Special:ListAdmins. TK-999 (talk) 12:23, November 2, 2012 (UTC)

I know, but how do I add local Administrators on my wikis onto the navigation, I know if you add **#topusers|Users to navigation, it shows you the list of users, but how do you do the same for Administrators? Niko Banks (talk) 12:33, November 2, 2012 (UTC).

--Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 23:06, March 8, 2013 (UTC)
 * there is currently no magic word to list specific users (in this case: sysop).

Use Parser Functions
Can one use parser functions for the Wiki navigation to remove a prefix (like "Instructions/Part 1" to "Part 1")? --Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 23:00, March 8, 2013 (UTC)


 * You can use the normal wiki text to do that (just like a link) and do . There shouldn't be a need for parser functions in the navigation. Rappy 16:21, March 11, 2013 (UTC)

--Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 17:50, March 11, 2013 (UTC)
 * What about when removing the prefix from the pages in a list made from a category?

Make my level 1 buttons not linked to anything
Please help me! Can you make the level 1 buttons NOT linked to anything (e.x this wiki's Help level 1 navigation button does not link to anything)? Thanks. DarkTimes2013 (talk) 05:33, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * Please ask this question on the forums. Thisismyrofl (talk) 05:55, July 3, 2013 (UTC)


 * That's done by setting the link to # or using  tags. Both of the lines below will not link to a page.

*#|Help
 * Help
 * Rappy 06:37, July 3, 2013 (UTC)

Categories list sub-categories
Is there anyway that I can make it so that the category droplists is limited to only showing the sub-categories that are in that category? I don't exactly want to see the other pages listed under there for my wiki navigation. ShikiKira (talk) 03:51, August 13, 2013 (UTC)

On The Wiki
Since the On The Wiki tab has no useful links other than RandomPage and a RecentChanges wannabe, and those can easily be placed elsewhere, it has no purpose. How can I remove it? -- 05:14, October 13, 2013 (UTC)

Making my Wiki Navigator like the one on the GTA Wiki
Hi, I want to make the top navigator on my wiki (The Lord of Ultima Wiki ) like the one on the Grand Theft Auto Wiki. Could someone who has also done this on their wiki or someone who knows how to please help me out?

Thanks,

WilliamLazycat (talk) 00:38, November 17, 2013 (UTC)

Help:Getting Started on On the Wiki Tabb
Hi

I ask myself why the link to the Help:Getting_Started is not in the "On th Wiki Tabb"? I place it on my navigation, but i think its bether to see it on that tab.

Fritz Kempf 10:26, November 18, 2013 (UTC)

level 3 limit
Does anyone know since when it is possible to have more than 10 level 3 items? Arkondi (talk) 08:58, December 27, 2013 (UTC)


 * This isn't possible. 10 is the limit. This is done for users with smaller screen resolutions to ensure that there aren't too many links that cannot be seen. Rappy 16:03, December 27, 2013 (UTC)


 * As I investigated further I now know that my question is not set correctly. In the navigation of w:c:personofinterest you can find more than 10 level 3 items. But actually level 4 items are used. Is it a bug or a feature, that the restriction can be bypassed this way? Arkondi (talk) 16:40, December 27, 2013 (UTC)

Publications not staying
After clicking preview, then publish after recieving no error pages, everything looks good on the MediaWiki:Wiki-Navigation page, but as soon as I go to another page, the navigation bar reverts to the standard. If I click 'Edit Wiki Navigation' again, I can see all my changes are still saved on the page. Am I being impatient, and there is a delay, or am I missing something obvious? I'm on google chrome, using the format: *Wiki Content **A ***x ***y **B Never mind! It just took a while to take! All working now! Mozzeltoff (talk) 00:31, April 4, 2014 (UTC)

Design
How do I change the design of the navigation? I mean how to make it like this wiki's. The borders are rounder. Ars Oboro (talk) 06:10, February 25, 2015 (UTC)


 * Ah, this will require some custom CSS. I can't provide specific code examples, but you can read more about this topic on Help:CSS. 15:35, February 25, 2015 (UTC)

A Wiki Navigation is just unfair
Whenever when I just make like one tab on a wiki navigation, it just keeps on saying that level 2 was too long, please shory it and fix it. I mean, how come every famous wikis have wiki navigations with alot of tabs? What is this, a glitch? I just hate this thing! I almost quited making Wikis because of this stupid thing! Wiki, please fix this! It's super annoying!Jevron L Freeman (talk) 05:47, July 11, 2015 (UTC)


 * That doesn't sound right at all. Could you send in a report to Special:Contact, with details of where you're seeing this issue? We can look at this in more depth there. 18:00, July 13, 2015 (UTC)

Level 2 Screen
What does Level 2 Screen Mean?

I am trying to edit my wiki navigation... But then when I went to publish it, it said My Level 2 Screen was to small. What does that mean, and how do I fix It?

Opalui of Novai (talk) 05:38, February 10, 2016 (UTC)


 * That sounds odd. Could you take a screenshot and send this info in to Special:Contact/bug? Thanks! 12:29, February 10, 2016 (UTC)

Problem with the menu
I am a recent admin on a wiki and would like to help it by updating the navigation tab. However, I have a strange problem: Everytime I try to scroll to the third level of the menu, the whole third level simply dissapear, making it very hard to click on links. Apparently, I am the only one who have this problem and it only happens on this particular wiki. Is there a reason to this problem or an answer?

Thanks for answering me.

Samattack2000 (talk) 15:43, July 2, 2016 (UTC)


 * Could you send in a bug report to Special:Contact/bug about this, with screenshots? It'll help us look into what may be going wrong for you. 15:06, July 4, 2016 (UTC)

Top Links
Is there anyway to remove the top links from my pages? It appears on some pages, but not others. It's annoying and confuses my members. Nemle (talk) 06:12, September 30, 2016 (UTC)
 * Which top links do you mean? The global header, as well as the wiki navigation header, should remain the same when switching pages. noreplyz talk  11:23, March 15, 2017 (UTC)

HELP
How do I link Level 2 & Level 3 links to existing pages???? Please help!

Aquabreeze2967 (talk) 20:56, March 24, 2017 (UTC)

* Is Level 1

** Is Level 2

*** Is Level 3

So you would put it like this:

** (Page name) without the parentheses

*** (Page name) without the parentheses as well.

--

Yes I know that, but when I did that and clicked on the navigation bar, it would add a # symbol onto the URL and then nothing would happen. And if I opened it on a new tab it would just take me to wiki navigation :(

Proof: the-animal-chronicles.wikia.com

It hapens even if the page already exists...

Aquabreeze2967 (talk) 03:41, March 27, 2017 (UTC)


 * remove the pipe at the beginning every sentence. as shown in example

*#|Characters *#Characters Minato826 <font face="Bradley Hand ITC">(Talk to ANOOP)(Contributions) 04:18, March 27, 2017 (UTC)
 * Protagonists
 * Russ
 * Spot
 * Iceclaw
 * Slash
 * Protagonists
 * Russ
 * Spot
 * Iceclaw
 * Slash

New Wiki-navigation
The recent new Wiki-navigation is already in some wikis, how can I change to the new one?


 * hope this blog helps User blog:Brandon Rhea/Wiki Modernization Stage Two: Page and Article Headers, to include your wiki into new article and page header. <span style="border-radius:1px;padding:5px 5px;background:#ced7e5; text-shadow: 0 0 8px red; color:silver; font-size:12pt;"><font face="Bradley Hand ITC">Minato826 <font face="Bradley Hand ITC">(Talk to ANOOP)(Contributions) 12:58, March 29, 2017 (UTC)

Help with error
How do you fix the error "<span style="color:rgb(81,22,22);">Oops, your Level 2 menu is too wide. Please shorten the menu to fit."Preatorus (talk) 20:30, May 17, 2017 (UTC)
 * Hello! One of the current solutions is to zoom out before clicking Preview. This makes it preview in a larger window, which sometimes makes it work. <font color="#FFF">noreplyz <font color="#333">talk  23:41, May 17, 2017 (UTC)

Navigation on main page
I edited my Navigation menu, it shows on all the pages except the main pages. Why is that?
 * Hey there - try clear the cache of the page. This is because the browser saves parts of the page to make page speeds faster. To do that, press Ctrl + F5. <font color="#fff">no <font color="#fff">replyz 15:15, May 5, 2018 (UTC)

Auto-populating not updating
I contacted support earlier this month reporting that auto-populating the menu isn't updating. Support confirmed it's not updating but indicated that it's not a high priority since the navigation links can be manually inserted. Maybe the help page should be updated to remove the auto-populating info for the time being, until it's fixed? (If it ever gets fixed...) ~ SlyCooperFan1 [message &middot; contributions] 16:43, April 22, 2019 (UTC)

Ahh whoops I didn't notice this earlier and have been chatting with folks on the forum who didn't know it stopped working. Reading comments above, it looks like it was turned off in 2012 or earlier! Rainbow Snake (talk) 07:41, November 26, 2020 (UTC)


 * Woops, honestly I thought that is "standard" so I looked no further into it - thanks for clarifying. But I put a notice up for now. And if you think "nay, that is not coming back ever!" then you may also remove that section. Encredechine (talk) 08:38, November 26, 2020 (UTC)


 * Sounds a good plan. I considered doing something similar myself. Still have my own unanswered Support ticket on the topic, but I'm presuming there's been no change. Not vital I guess. Rainbow Snake (talk) 09:08, November 26, 2020 (UTC)

How to add a Main Page button?
I have seen in some wikis (like the community central, for example) there is a "Main Page" button on the navigation bar. How could I add one to my wiki? OneNose (talk) 08:42, April 20, 2020 (UTC)

Comment tags don't work here
While testing out a new navigation layout on my wiki, I used comment tags to "comment out" the old and added the new one underneath. But it turns out that comment tags weren't working, and I found out that I had to either remove the old code or move it to the bottom in order for me to see the new layout. Not sure if this is intentional or not, but if it is could someone please add it to the help page? ZioreRogue (talk) 00:36, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Comment tags should be ignored entirely, could you link where you put the comment tag? ~ <span style="font-weight:bold;font-family:Rubik;display:inline-block;border-left: 5px solid #00d5d5;border-right:3px solid #00d5d5;border-radius:3px;padding:2px;box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black;"> Headquarter 83  02 <sup style="font-size:x-small;">yeet  G'day mate 02:09, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I've added it back to demonstrate here. Notice the 4th level 1 link, which shouldn't show up as it's been commented out. ZioreRogue (talk) 06:33, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I think comments aren't working in multi line in the Wiki-navigation, you need to create a comment on each line just to be safe. Or it just hides the content on the page, and FANDOM is still parsing it ~ <span style="font-weight:bold;font-family:Rubik;display:inline-block;border-left: 5px solid #00d5d5;border-right:3px solid #00d5d5;border-radius:3px;padding:2px;box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black;"> Headquarter 83  02 <sup style="font-size:x-small;">yeet  G'day mate 06:41, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Alright, good to know. Btw I've just gone ahead and removed the commented section, since it was only a test look. ZioreRogue (talk) 02:45, 6 June 2021 (UTC)

Max widths
This may be useful in the section How many links can it contain? On FandomDesktop the total width restrictions were replaced by a maximum width of each link. Any text exceeding the maximum width is automatically hiden under an ellipses symbol (…). The maximum width per link is: In level 2 and 3 the text can automatically use a line break and fill a 2nd line before it starts to be hidden.
 * Level 1 – 140px
 * Level 2
 * with no level 3 options under it – 155px
 * with level 3 options under it – 113px
 * Level 3 – 143px

—Sapador Castelo 17:18, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Linking to sections within pages?
I can't seem to figure out how to link to section within pages on the navbar. Let's say I want to redirect to Page#Section. I wrote that in, but when I clicked the option, it linked me to Page#Section#Section. Does anyone know why this happens? For more infomartion, the formatting was:

* Category

** Page

*** Page#Section


 * Hmm, it indeed does that on every nesting level, even the top bar. It might be a bug, I suggest you to contact FANDOM about this: https://support.fandom.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000940393 ~ <span style="background-color:#280033;font-weight:bold;font-family:Rubik;display:inline-block;border-radius:3px;padding:2px;box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px black;"> Headquarter 83  02 <sup style="font-size:x-small;">c  05:35, 5 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I had the same issue, it still happens but for now using '%23' instead of '#' seems to do the trick
 * So instead of 'Page#Section' write 'Page%23Section'
 * P1nkl0bst3r (talk) 13:06, 6 October 2022 (UTC)

Nav Item Limit
Does anyone know why we’re limited to only 4 level 1 nav items? That seems so limiting, especially when there’s so much unused space there.

How do i add wiki navigation menus?
How do you add a wiki navigation that shows 7 sections that has those 7 sections underneath?

Section needs updating
In this section of the page, it says that you can have a maximum of 312 nav links, comprised of 4 Level 1 links, 7 Level 2 links per level Level 1 link, and 10 Level 3 links per Level 2 link. This used to be true, but it seems to have been recently updated to allow for Level 4 links, and from what I can tell, you can add infinite Level 4 links, the only limit being they will spill off the page if you add too many. This should be updated to reflect the changes in the software behind it. &mdash; Mr. Starfleet Command (wall &bull; contributions &bull; activity) 13:14, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

How to add links outside site namespace
Would definitely be helpful if this article showed how to link from navigation to fandom pages outside the defined wiki namespace (e.g. Help pages). I've seen this in other wikis but as a new Fandom user/admin the syntax isn't obvious.