Changes to the Navigation Bar
February 4th, 2008 by Sarah
We’ve updated our Navigation bar feature to make Wikispaces even easier for you. In particular, it should help new users with new spaces.
A space on Wikispaces is a place for you to do your work with your team and it can have an unlimited number of pages in it.
To help you navigate around and find all the different pages in your space, Wikispaces has a navigation bar which sits to the left side of your space. Previously as a new user, you had to edit the navigation bar manually by clicking “edit navigation” to add links to your new pages.
We’ve now automated this, making it easier for you to get started. Now, all the pages that you create will appear in the navigation bar automatically. Of course, should you choose to edit the navigation bar yourself, we’ll stop updating it so you can customize it as you like.
Let us know what you think about this feature or anything else you see on Wikispaces.
No offense, but that personally sounds like a pain. Most of the pages I make on my wikispaces (I have 4) are sub-pages that would never belong on the navigation bar. Please consider disabling this feature.
Hi Nudoru,
This feature is designed primarily for new wikis. To disable the automatic page list, all you have to do is edit the sidebar and enter your own content. Or, if you already have a your own navigation content on your own wikis, you don’t have to change a thing — you won’t see this new page list.
Best,
James
Hi
I just started setting up a site . . . and I’m trying to figure out how to edit the “side bar” or Navigation Bar.” For example, I would like to change the order of how the items are listed. It automatically puts the items in alphabetical order. Also, there seems to be a limit to the number of “pages” I can list on the side bar. Right now, every time I add a new item, another disappears. I can find the link when I go “list pages.” But new comers to the site may not know how to find the pages. There seems to be plenty of room on the side bar to list all the pages I’ll need . . . I just can’t figure out how to.
Howard
Howard,
By clicking “edit navigation,” you should be able to list the pages in any order and add as many page links as you wish.
If you send an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com, letting us know about this problem and the space it is happening on, we’ll take a look at it.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah
Thank you so much.
I will try this.
Howard
I think this change is pretty helpful. It is much easier for me now!
-Lexi
Can you tell me how to change the order of pages in my navigation bar?
BJ Diller,
You can change the order of the pages in your navigation bar by clicking “edit navigation.” You will be brought to the space.menu page. Currently, this page is blank - as with any new wikipage you create - and can be fully customized by you. To reorder your pages, simply list your pages in the order you would like them and link each word to the correct page.
We are working to streamline this process so that you won’t have to add your new pages the first time you edit the space.menu page.
Best,
Sarah
I know this is off-topic, but I can’t find any place else that is even close. I need to ask a question about Wikitext: how can I center a heading? I tried to indent, but when I saved the page, it went back to flush left. I tried the HTML command, but I must have done something wrong because it didn’t work either. Help?
tnx
mark
I’ll admit that it took me a while to understand how the left navigation bar worked, but now it is a pain that it automatically does something. I thought something was wrong with my one of my wikis. I think this will confuse new users more than it will help. I would respectfully suggest that time be spent on better tutorials. You guys/gals do a great job!! Keep it up!
Oops, one more comment… As a teacher that has 600+ pages on my wiki I would like to have the ability to lock the left navigation bar. The kids sometimes get into it mistakenly and save pages there or save their text there. That was a nightmare, but it forced me to learn more about that little “edit navigation” link.
this change isnt helping much
smiraniC,
If you have any suggestions or requests for this feature, or just want to let us know what you like and don’t like about it, let us know. Just send us an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com .
Best,
Sarah
Mark,
I saw that you sent us this request via e-mail today and I replied. Let us know if you need further clarification.
Sarah
Chris,
Thanks for your feedback. Making Wikispaces simpler over time is our goal. If you can tell us what you think will confuse new users, it will be helpful for us in going forward.
As for locking the Navigation bar, you can do this. Go to “Manage Space” and then “List Pages.” There will be an option to lock the space.menu page (the wiki page that contains the Navigation Bar content).
Cheers,
Sarah
How can I toggle the automatic navigation feature? I have one space that has auto complete but others that do not.
glen,
The automatic navigation bar is available for any space where the navigation bar has not yet been edited. It can be turned off by editing the navigation bar.
The only way to undo this is to go to “Manage Space” and then “List and Upload Files.” If you delete your space.menu page, it will be as if the Navigation page had not been created.
This is the way to toggle between the two states at this moment.
Sarah
i enjoy the new navigation bar and im semi new.
it makes finding things easier
I’m a new user and I have found this feature to be very useful and user-friendly
Hello there,
I have several wikispaces sites, and have set up the navigation to link to menu pages that then link to other pages.
Now, all the pages appear on the navigation bar.
For instance:
http://www.footstepstothemoon.wikispaces.com is the site dedicated to my musical.
Previously, there was a link on the navigation bar called ‘Songs’. When you clicked on it, a page came up listing the songs. You could then click on a song and a page would come up with the lyrics, an illustration and an audio player to hear the song.
Now, I have a huge listing of all my pages, including ones that are unfinished and not ready for viewing yet.
How do I get my old site back?
Thanks
Rod Anderson
Is it possible to be able to outline the navigation bar so that you can have subpages that show when you click on a symbol. ie you can view just the main headings or chose to see the suhedings for any one of them.
How am I to get back to the navigation bar we had? What we had worked well and now there are so many pages showing up on the navigation bar it is useless. Please help me understand how to get back to yesterday.
Is there a way to keep the navigation history like you have for pages? What I would really like to do is just go back to what was familiar and useful. A history button would allow me to do that.
You are the greatest! That was a quick fix to what looked to be a frustrating problem on this end. I don’t know what you did but my life just got a lot less complicated knowing your there to help keep this wiki thing going.
Rod and Jeff,
This morning at around 2 AM PST, one our servers failed in an unexpected way. The effect was that some pages were showing up as blank, when they weren’t actually blank. If your space.menu page was showing up as blank, you would have seen a list of all your pages in the navigation bar.
We have fixed the problem and everything is working properly now. Rod, let us know if things look normal again for you.
We will be taking every measure possible to ensure that this confusing and frustrating situation does not happen again.
Our apologies for the trouble this morning and thank you for letting us know.
Best,
Sarah
Reesie4,
There is no way to have a pop-up menu with subcategories in the navigation bar. However, depending on the theme you use for your space, you can indent lines of your navigation bar by placing “> ” (without the quotation ” ” marks) at the front of the line you wish to indent.
If you would like more help specifically with your space, send us an e-mail at help@wikispaces.com with your space name and we can take a look at it.
Sarah
Nav Bar lists pages either alpha or numeric, but number seems to go only to 9 and loop so that 10, 11, 12, etc are placed between 1 and 2.
Can you change bar to allow 3 digit lead numbers or is there a work around?
Burton,
The default navigation bar setting is for all the pages to be listed alphabetically. However, if you click “edit navigation,” you will be taking to your space.menu page. There you can list your pages as you would like, link them, and then save the page.
Sarah
I’ve just started building a wiki and as a complete novice the new navigation feature is a very welcome addition. Anything which reduces the amount of new knowledge I have to acquire and keeps me out of the more technical bits increases my productivity and feelings of satisfaction at my achievements.
What we need for our wiki is different. We have a lot of links in our navigation & need an easy way to have collapsible navigation. ie. a user can click on a major heading which would expand the possible links below it.
In regards to the navigation menu…You said,
on 25 Feb 2008 at 2:09 pm28 Sarah
Burton,
The default navigation bar setting is for all the pages to be listed alphabetically. However, if you click “edit navigation,” you will be taking to your space.menu page. There you can list your pages as you would like, link them, and then save the page.
Sarah
When I click the edit navigation menu, I don’t see my pages listed. Instead, I see an embedded object (includePageList) and therefore I can’t edit my menu.
How can I rearrange my menu items?
Rodney,
Sorry about that. Since we released this new navigation feature, people editing the navigation bar for the first time found the blank page confusing. We now show the “include PageList” to make the process clearer for people. This “include PageList” is the code that automatically places new pages into your navigation bar.
If you would like to no longer have your pages appear automatically in alphabetical order, you can delete this include. From there, list the pages you would like in the navigation bar and link each entry on the list to its corresponding page, just as you would add any other link to your space. Save the page and you will see the changes in your navigation bar.
Best,
Sarah
Hi! I’m already having a few problems with this because we’ve been using the Navigation panel like a site map. For one class wiki, the entire nav panel is jumbled & we can no longer locate anything. I had to go back and try to fix another one, but editing the page list is not working successfully so it keeps reverting back to the other. I’ve tried using the “page list” to move the pages up & down the pane, but they won’t highlight and only one actually moves. How can I revert my other wiki back to the way it was and keep my new one from being automatically edited? Thanks!
Kathleen
How do I lock the edit button the top of my page. Now every one can add or changes my wikispace. I want only few people or it should be only me who can modify the wikispaces.
Regards,
sm
Kathleen,
Send us an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com letting us know the names of your spaces and the problems you are having with each. We will look into what is causing this.
Best,
Sarah
Sreedhar,
As an organizer of a space, you can lock the pages, meaning only organizers can edit those pages. To do this, go to “Manage Space” and “List Pages.” You’ll see an option there to lock individual pages.
Cheers,
Sarah
We are new at this, and I am confused about the nav bar. I have to manually link each one if I want them set, but they are automatically linked if they are not set?
What is the create a new page for? Is that specfically so a page will be in the nav bar? Why would I create a page by clicking on that rather than adding a topic and creating a link? Are there tutorials on the nav bar?
Monica,
The way the navigation bar works is that new pages will automatically appear linked in the navigation bar. This is to help new people more easily find new pages they make.
Besides this feature, the navigation bar works just like any other wiki page. You can add text and images or link text. We kept it this way to allow you to customize the navigation bar as you’d like.
There is no real difference between clicking on “Make a New Page” and highlighting some text and linking it to a new page. It just matters where you are. The latter is easier if you are in the midst of editing a page. The former might be easier if you aren’t editing a page.
Our most in-depth conversation about the new navigation bar is currently this blog post and the comments. We have plans of moving some of this material to a place where people can more easily find it.
Best,
Sarah
Is there a way to omit the space.menu page from the navigation bar - using the “include page list”? I know I can manually list the pages I would like to appear in the navigation bar, but I find the page list very useful.
Signe,
Right now, there is no way to selectively choose which pages appear in the Page List Include.
However, if you have not made any changes to the space.menu page, and don’t plan to, then you can delete the page. Go to “Manage Space,” “List Pages,” and then delete. It should no longer appear in the navigation bar.
Best,
Sarah