How to Create Blog Menus in WordPress, and Use Categories to Feed Pages

I finally got time this weekend to try to fix up some things that have been bugging me on my blog. I was stumped about how to create blog menus in WordPress, as well as how to use categories to feed posts to specific pages. So once I figured it out, I decided to document it here and share in case it can help anyone else with the same problem.

I also had an issue with my default posts not showing up correctly on my home page. Only the 2 latest posts would ever appear, regardless of the number of posts settings I had saved. The solution for that specific issue is at the end of this post.

I am on WordPress.com so these tips would be applicable to that platform specifically.

I figured out how to create a new page and feed certain posts to it. This one was tricky and took ALOT of Googling to figure out, and even more trial-and-error. But I finally made it work using Categories.

If you’re a newbie like me, then Categories can be difficult to figure out. There are basically 3 locations you need to make Categories feed certain posts to a specific page. All 3 locations are in your WordPress Dashboard. You can access your Dashboard by going to “My Site” > “WP Admin”.

Image Source: Me

Once you are in your Dashboard…

  • Dashboard > Posts > Categories
    • This is where you create your Category and describe it
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  • Dashboard > Pages
    • This is where you create your new Page
    • I used “Use Blank Layout” for mine and it worked ok
    • If you’d like to Copy an existing Page, be sure to use the “Copy” link available
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  • Dashboard > Appearance > Menus
    • This is where you assign a Category to a Page, so that certain posts (labelled with that specific Category) will automatically feed to that Page.
    • You use the “Add Menu Item” section, and double-check that when your Page gets added to the “Menu Structure” section, that it is labelled as “Category” instead of “Page”.
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I have a sneaking suspicion that different templates can react differently to this, so just keep double-checking on your live site that you’re happy with it.

One problem I ran into that took an extreme amount of Googling to resolve, was my issue with my Home page not displaying more than 2 of my latest posts, despite all my settings everywhere setting it to 10 posts per page.

The solution was a weird one, but it worked! So I’m sharing it here as well in case anyone else is having a similar problem.

  • Dashboard > Appearance > Menus
    • In the “Add Menu Items” section, you will expand the option for “Custom Links”
    • Enter “/” (right slash) into the “URL” field
    • Enter “Home” into the “Link Text” field
    • Select the “Add to Menu” button
    • You will notice that a new “Home” item appear in the “Menu Structure” section with “Custom Link” as it’s type. Drag it to the correct order where you’d like it.
    • Then, in the same “Menu Structure” section, and you will remove the original “Home” item that appears there as a “Page”.

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