Dealing with Menus in Joomla: System Links

The System Links menu item type category has the following four options, as shown in Figure 7-65:

External URL: This type is used to access web pages of an external web For example, you can use this type to access Google from the web site.
Menu Heading: This type is used to separate links with images or text in a It can also be used to display a short description before each link.
Menu Item Alias: This type creates a link to an existing menu item. That is, it can access and display information that is already displayed in an existing menu item. Suppose you have a menu item by the name of Making Films that displays the information of the “Latest Cameras” article, and you want another menu item, Shooting Accessories, to display the same You can set the menu item type of Shooting Accessories to Menu Item Alias, which will make it refer to the same article.
Text Separator: This type creates a separator (in the form of a horizontal line or a blank line) within a It is used to break up long menus. Usually, you see a Text Separator in the form of a horizontal line in the File menu (in most word processing packages) between Save, Print, and other options.

1. External URL

This menu item type is used to create a menu item that links to an external web site or page. Open the New Electronics Among Cameras And Cell Phones menu item in edit mode. From the Menu Item Type combo box, select External URL option under the System Links menu item type category, as shown in Figure 7-66. For this example, you can leave all the settings as is, except for one field: Link.

For this field, specify the URL of the web page to which you want the visitor to navigate when the menu item of this type is selected. Let’s specify http://bmharwani.com. After entering the URL of the web page or web site, click the Save & Close icon.

2. Menu Item Alias

This menu item type creates a link to an existing menu item. It enables you to have identical menu items in two or more menus without duplicating the settings. For example, suppose that you want the current menu item to point to the existing menu item Purchase Support. The idea is that you want the current menu item to display the same information to which the menu item Purchase Support is pointing.

When you select the Menu Item Alias menu item type, you’ll see a screen for entering certain information. Keep all the settings as is, except for the Menu Item drop-down list, in which you can select the menu item to which the current menu item is to point. Select the menu item Purchase Support, as shown in Figure 7-67.