Navigation settings

Two settings control how guests move within a menu: how the category tree is rendered, and which utility controls the navigation offers. Both are per menu type.

Where

Settings → Restaurant settings → Content settings → Content settings, in each menu type's block.

Category nav utility toggles

Three independent checkboxes, described on the screen as choosing which utility actions appear at the end of the category navigation:

Enable only what the menu needs:

• Filters is only useful when that menu type carries allergen information. Enabling it on a menu type without allergen data gives guests a control that opens nothing useful.
• Favorites earns its place on menus long enough to shortlist from. On a list of twelve items it is clutter.
• Language is only useful on a multilingual site — but there it should be on everywhere, so a guest deep in the wine list can switch without going home first.

The navigation bar is narrow on a phone, and every icon competes with the category list for the same space.

Flat category navigation

Use flat category navigation for … archive renders every category at one level instead of showing parents with their children.

Defaults:

• wine list — flat, because wine lists are browsed by family;
• every other type — nested.

Choose from how guests use the menu rather than from how the tree is built. A two-level structure can still read better flat when all the sections are equally important.

If a nested tree is rendering as a flat list, check this setting before rebuilding the tree.

What the navigation is built from

The category order set on All categories, for that menu type. The navigation has no order of its own.

That makes category design a navigation decision:

• keep names short — one or two words fit in the bar, four do not;
• keep the count between three and eight;
• put the most-used section first, since it is the one visible without scrolling the bar;
• avoid two categories whose names start with the same word.

When the navigation does not appear

It is not rendered when there is nothing to navigate — a menu type with a single category, or categories with no published items. That is content behavior, not a settings problem.

After changing navigation settings

• [ ] Saved with Save Settings.
• [ ] Every section is reachable on a phone.
• [ ] The bar scrolls smoothly when there are many categories.
• [ ] The active section is clearly indicated.
• [ ] Enabled toggles open something useful; disabled ones are absent.
• [ ] The flat/nested choice matches how the menu is actually browsed.