{warning}Builder 1.x only{warning}
h1. Anatomy of Menus

*{excerpt}This tutorial explains the basic structure of menus and how to create them...{excerpt}*

h2. Menu Sections

The menus in {builder} are split in to three sections:

* *Custom Pre-Menu* - these menu items appear _before_ the ??View?? and ??Edit?? menus.
* *View and Edit menus* - these are in-built menus that contain all of the standard {confluence} navigational elements.
* *Custom Post-Menu* - these menu items appear _after_ the ??View?? and ??Edit?? menus.

The standard ??View?? and ??Edit?? menus can be [partially customised|Customising the View and Edit Menus], however you can't make major alterations to them. This is because they contain additional logic that enables and disables items based on the location within a [space|Spaces] (eg. you can't add comments to the site map) and the privileges of the logged in user.

The custom pre- and -post menus, however are completely customisable and we'll cover the basics of defining menus in the remainder of this tutorial...

h2. Custom Menus

The custom menus are constructed using simple [Wiki Markup Editor], more specifically [lists|indents and Lists] and [links].

h3. Buttons on the Menu Bar

The structure of a menus is defined using an ??unordered?? bullet list and the hyperlinks in a menu are defined using, somewhat obviously, links. :)

Here's a quick example:

{noformat}
* Home
* Builder
{noformat}

If you put that notation in to a page, it would look like this:

* Home
* Builder

You can link these buttons to pages by turning them in to links:

{noformat}
* [Home]
* [Builder]
{noformat}

Which results in:

* [Home]
* [Builder]

It should be noted that you can use any type of [link|Links] and also have a different on-screen caption and tooltip if desired, for example:

{noformat}
* [Start|Home|Our homepage]
* [Adaptavist|http://adaptavist.com|Our website]
{noformat}

Which would give:

* [Start|Home|Our homepage]
* [Adaptavist|http://adaptavist.com|Our website]

When a linked button on the menu bar is clicked, you will be taken to the location defined by the link.

h3. Pop-Up Menus

As you'll see from the menu bar buttons at the top of this page, most of them display a pop-up menu when the mouse moves over them. To do this, simply increase the indentation of items that you want to move from the menu bar to the pop-up menu:

{noformat}
* [Home]
* [Builder]
** [CSS Custom Styles]
** [Installing Builder]
** [Menus]
{noformat}

If you put that notation in to a page, it would look like this:

* [Home]
* [Builder]
** [CSS Custom Styles]
** [Installing Builder]
** [Menus]

h3. Sub-Menus

Just as you increase the indentation to move items from the menu bar to the pop-up menu, you can increase it still further to create sub-menus:

{noformat}
* [Home]
* [Builder]
** [CSS Custom Styles]
*** [Headings CSS]
*** [Text Styles CSS]
** [Installing Builder]
** [Menus]
{noformat}

If you put that notation in to a page, it would look like this:

* [Home]
* [Builder]
** [CSS Custom Styles]
*** [Headings CSS]
*** [Text Styles CSS]
** [Installing Builder]
** [Menus]

The ??Headings CSS?? and ??Text Styles CSS?? items will now appear on a sub-menu that gets displayed when the mouse is over the ??CSS Custom Styles?? menu item.

You can increase the indentation still further to add sub-menus to sub-menus and so on.

If you don't like typing all the [Wiki Markup Editor], you might consider using [Automated Menu Creation] and let macros do all the work for you!

h3. Menu Spacers

You will have noticed that the menus at the top of this page have spacer bars in them - to create a spacer bar, just use the [Wiki Markup Editor] for a horizontal rule:

{noformat}
* [Home]
* ----
* [Builder]
{noformat}

By simply adding an item with four hyphens ??-?? you create a spacer bar. You can add spacers in both the menu bar, pop-up menus and sub-menus.