How to Customize the Navigation of a SharePoint Communication Site and Hub Site

SharePoint navigation is designed and made available in such a way to make things simpler when it comes to navigating in the SharePoint environment. No doubt that there are a lot of things considered while setting these up like the way we see it today. Understanding how navigation works in SharePoint is crucial to manipulate them in a way that gives you the most value. This is where customizing navigation of a SharePoint site gains its importance. We have done a blog regarding this topic earlier and it gives you a basic awareness about factors you need to consider before moving forward with the customization, and how to customize.

Today we are going to show you how to customize navigation of a communication site and a hub site. Let us get started.

How to customize the navigation of a communication site by adding a link/label to the top menu

• Go to the SharePoint Communication Site in which you wish to do the customization.
• From the top menu, click on Edit placed to the right.
• Move your mouse pointer to the location in the menu where you wish to add a link.
• Click +, and the Add a link dialog box will appear.
• You can pick from two options: URL or Header.
• To add a link to the menu, you just need to enter the web page address and give a display name.
• You can also choose Header option if you wish to add a label without a hyperlink.
• Go to the page to which you wish to add a link from the menu and copy the URL from the address bar.
• Paste the URL in the Address bar and enter the Display name that you desire.
• Click OK to confirm.
• To save the changes, you can click Save.
• You can click on Cancel if you want to discard all changes made.
• You could also change the navigation layout and choose either Cascade or Mega Menu.
• To make that change, go to Change the look option, and choose Navigation.

To perform these actions to customize the navigation you need to have at least the manage lists permission.

Steps to add or edit links/labels in a communication site footer

Before going to the steps to add or edit links/labels in a communication site footer, we would like to enlighten you about some basic facts. The site footer feature is only available on Communication Site Site Pages. You will not find it in Library pages, List Pages, or other pages on your communication site.

• Click on the Edit option placed on the right side of your footer.
• You need to have the footer control turned on to find this option.
• Go to the buttons on the left navigation pane and click + just above the buttons.
• In the Add a link dialog box that appears, enter the desired URL and display name.
• Click Ok.
• To edit existing links on the site footer, click the Edit option and click on the ellipses that show up near to the link you want to customize.
• From the Edit, Move Up/Move Down, and Remove options, choose the right options, and make necessary changes.
• Click on Save after making all desired changes.

How to add a link to the navigation bar of a hub site

Look for the Edit option next to the Hub Site navigation bar. If you do not see that option, it means you do not have permission to make changes to the navigation. At least manage lists permissions are required to perform these steps. The changes you are making to the hub site navigation bar will take up to 2 hours to show up in the associated sites.

• Look for the Edit option placed on the right side of the hub site Navigation Bar.
• Click on Edit and move your mouse pointer towards the area in the menu where you wish to add a link.
• Click on the + icon and the down arrow.
• From the Add a link dialog box that appears, you need to fill the Address box and Display name box.
• To find the correct URL of the web page you wish to add to the navigation bar, go to the page and copy the URL from the address bar.
• Past the URL in the box allotted in the Add a link box.
• Enter an appropriate display name for the box and click Ok.
• The text you are entering in the display name box will be the text that shows up on the menu.
• Click Save to complete the process.

There is a lot more customization options that you can try for making navigation better in your SharePoint Site. Stay tuned for our upcoming blogs.

Have a good day.