How To Add a Mega Menu in WordPress

Here’s the basic process to create a mega menu with Elementor and JetMenu:

  1. Set up your menu (Appearance → Menus).
  2. Enable JetMenu and choose the menu item that you want to open the mega menu.
  3. Design your mega menu using Elementor.
  4. Display your mega menu in a Header template using Elementor Theme Builder and JetMenu’s mega menu widget.

We’ll take you through everything step-by-step.

To get started, make sure to install the following plugins:

  • Elementor
  • Elementor Pro – you need this to create a custom header template using Theme Builder.
  • JetMenu – you can purchase just the JetMenu plugin for $24 for use on a single site or you can buy a bundle of all the Crocoblock plugins for $130.

1. Set Up Your Regular WordPress Menu

To get started, you need to set up your basic menu using the regular WordPress menu settings. To access these settings, go to Appearance → Menus.

If you haven’t already created a menu for your site, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve set up the menu structure. In the next step, you’ll be able to turn one or more of the top-level menu items into a mega menu when a user hovers over it:

elementor-mega-menu-1-set-up-menu-structure

For example, you can see that there’s a menu item for “Shop”. In the next step, you’ll be able to make it so that the mega menu expands when a user hovers over the Shop menu item.

Once you’re happy with the menu structure (or if you’ve already set up your menu structure), you can move on to the next step.

2. Enable JetMenu and Set Mega Menu Item

Next, use the toggle in the JetMenu Locations Settings to Enable JetMenu for current location under the Primary Menu settings.

Once you enable JetMenu, you can hover over the menu item that you want to trigger your mega menu and click the JetMenu button:

elementor-mega-menu-2-enable-jetmeu

Clicking the JetMenu button should open a popup.

In the popup, make sure to set the Mega submenu enabled toggle to on and save your changes:

elementor-mega-menu-3-enable-mega-submenu

That’s the only setting that you must configure, but there are other optional settings that you might want to consider. These other settings will let you:

  • Change the mega menu position relative to the menu item.
  • Set a custom mega menu width.
  • Add icons or badges.
  • Set custom padding for the menu item.

If you’re not sure how a certain setting will affect your mega menu, you can always come back to these settings later on once you get a feel for how your mega menu looks with the default settings.

3. Design Your Mega Menu Using Elementor

Next, click the Edit Mega Menu Item Content button to launch the Elementor interface. The interface will open in a popup, but it’s the same regular Elementor interface other than that.

Now, you can create the design for the mega menu itself. This is the content that will appear underneath the menu item when a user hovers over it.

How you create this design is totally up to you. If you have no idea where to start, you can begin by creating a section with a two or three-column layout.

Here, we’ve created just a simple three-column dummy design to illustrate how you might go about it:

elementor-mega-menu-5-design-mega-menu

To give you an idea of how that design will eventually look on the front-end, here’s an example of the real mega menu being triggered on hover:

elementor-mega-menu-6-front-end-mega-menu

Again, this is just the Hello theme and some simple dummy content with a gray background to illustrate the concept. But you can see that the mega menu essentially just displays the section but in a contained layout.

With this in mind, you can feel free to use any Elementor widgets in your design. You can even bring in dynamic content.

For example, you could use the Posts widget to automatically showcase your latest blog posts in the mega menu. You can also include a contact form, maps, etc.

Make sure to save your design when you’re finished. You can close the popup by clicking the “X” in the top-right corner (the icon can be hard to see, but it should be there).

4. Create Your Header Template Using Elementor Theme Builder

At this point, you’re almost finished. The last step is to create a header template using Elementor Theme Builder so that you can properly trigger your mega menu.

To do that, go to Templates → Theme Builder to open Elementor Theme Builder. Then, create a new header template:

elementor-mega-menu-7-theme-builder-create-header

You can either choose from one of the pre-built header templates or design your own from scratch.

However, instead of using the built-in Elementor Nav Menu widget like you normally would, you need to add JetMenu’s Mega Menu widget (or the Vertical Mega Menu widget if you want to make it vertical instead of horizontal). You’ll see these elements in the JetElements section of the Elementor sidebar or you can search for them by name.

In the Mega Menu widget’s settings, you can choose the menu that you created in step #1 for desktop visitors.

You can use the same menu for mobile visitors or you also have the option to choose a separate menu for mobile visitors. To use separate menus, you would need to create another menu just for mobile visitors in the Appearance → Menus interface:

elementor-mega-menu-8-mega-menu-widget

You can also use the Mega Menu widget’s other settings to control the mobile layout and general design, style, and layout options.

In the Mobile Layout settings, you get a lot of options for configuring mobile behavior such as:

  • Whether to have the mega menu slide-out, drop-down, or push other content.
  • The container position.
  • Whether to close the mega menu after navigation.
  • Etc.
elementor-mega-menu-9-mobile-layout

And that’s it! Once you publish your header template, your new mega menu will be live.

Create a Custom Mega Menu for Your Own Website

If your site has a lot of content/categories that you need to present to visitors, a mega menu is the best way to make those navigation items accessible while still keeping your site clean and user-friendly. That’s why you’ll see mega menus used by so many different websites.

WordPress doesn’t make it easy to create a mega menu by default. But with Elementor and Crocoblock, you get the ability to create your own custom mega menus using Elementor’s visual, drag-and-drop interface.

Create your first mega menu today and enhance your WordPress site’s navigation. To get started, install Elementor and Elementor Pro and grab your copy of JetMenu.

Do you still have any questions about how to create a WordPress mega menu with Elementor and Crocoblock? Ask us in the comments