Mommy Hacks #16 - Configure Your Pages Menu in Blogger

Blogger pages are really handy.

They let you keep static information such as galleries, indices, about information, disclosure statements and just about anything else you want readers to access easily, separate from your posts.

The only problem is that by default Blogger puts all the pages in the main menu which can make it very cluttered.

It is much better to be able to hide some of the pages from the main menu and access them from for example, a blog index, sub-menu or sidebar button.

When you create a page there isn't any obvious way on the page itself to prevent it being displayed in your main menu, but it is actually super easy to configure the Blogger menu to do this.

1. Go to Layout within Blogger.

2. On the Pages gadget near the top of your layout click the Edit link.

3. A list of all your pages will be displayed.

4. Un-check any that you want to be public but don't want in the main menu & click Save.

5. Go to Pages within Blogger.

6. Click on the View link for the page you want to link to and copy the URL.

7. You can now create a link to this URL in for example ..

any blog post or other page using the standard blogger Link tool
an image or button on your side bar
a blog index
a mini-menu in your side bar

That's it ... super simple!

Example
To see an example of how hidden pages can be used, check out the Blogging page in my main menu.

I have shared a large number of different posts and resources for other Bloggers including ...

Tips on blog design & growing your blog
Simple mommy hacks that show bloggers how to code & configure their blog
An enormous link party directory
Brilliant blogger directories that list great bloggers in particular niches & regions

I don't want separate pages for each of these in the menu but if I include all the links in a single page, it becomes enormous and slow to load.

So I've put the link party directory and brilliant blogger directories in separate hidden pages that I link to from my main blogging page.