Create a Dropdown Navigation in SharePoint [With Sublinks]

While working with one of my clients, they requested a way to make their SharePoint site navigation more user-friendly. Specifically, they wanted the left navigation menu to include dropdowns with clickable submenus, so users could easily browse different pages and sections without making the main menu look crowded.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a dropdown navigation with a submenu in SharePoint step by step. Also, we will see how this dropdown navigation works with the SharePoint Communication site.

SharePoint Dropdown Navigation

We can create a dropdown navigation in SharePoint on any site, whether a Team site or a Communication site. Apart from that, we can also create the dropdown navigation in the SharePoint Hub site, which is called as Hub navigation.

On a Team Site, the drop-down navigation (sublinks) is always collapsed by default. However, on a Communication Site, navigation can be customised to appear as either a Mega menu or a Cascading menu.

Refer to the image below to see how a SharePoint dropdown navigation looks:

Create a Dropdown Navigation in SharePoint

Before creating a dropdown navigation, it’s helpful to understand its main elements and how they work:

• Labels – Non-clickable text headers used to group related links.
• Sublinks – These are the actual clickable links that appear in the dropdown, allowing you to organise pages or sections under each label.

Here, in the SharePoint left navigation, I would like to add a Department dropdown where there will be three sublinks in it, like IT, HR, and FINANCE, as shown below:

Let’s go through the steps to create the dropdown navigation on the SharePoint site. Here, I will implement it in one of my Team sites. You can follow the same steps for the Communication site and the Hub site.

1. Click the Edit option below from the left navigation.

2. Click on the + option. You can see there will be three fields:
   • Choose an option: Select Label.
   • Address: This will be in disabled mode after selecting the label.
   • Display name: Specify a label name that will appear in the navigation.

Click on OK.

3. The Department label has been added to the navigation. Now, I would like to add the sub-navigations/sublinks inside the Department. To do it,
   • Click the + icon under the Department label.
   • Choose an option as Link.
   • Provide the URL address.
   • Specify a Display name.
   • Open in a new tab: If you want to open the specific url in a new tab, check this option.

Click on OK.

4. You can see the IT has been added under the Department. But I want it to appear inside the department. For this, click on three dots (…) -> Make sub link.

After creating the IT as a sublink, it will appear in the department as a dropdown.

5. In the same way, we can add multiple links, as I am adding another department, HR.

Create One Level Of Sublink in SharePoint Dropdown Navigation

Suppose inside the IT department, you want to add another level of sublink, i.e. IT Solutions, that looks like the image below:

NOTE:

We can create a maximum of two levels of sublinks in the SharePoint left navigation.

To achieve it, click the + icon below the IT department and provide the details below:

• Choose an option as Link.
• Provide the URL address.
• Specify a Display name.

Click on OK.

To make the IT Solutions a Sub link, select three dots (…) -> Click Make sub link as below.

Once everything is done, click on the Save button. Now our SharePoint dropdown navigation is ready to use.

SharePoint Dropdown Navigation in Communication Site

To create a dropdown navigation for the Communication site, follow the same steps; however, I have explained them for the SharePoint team site above.

Refer to the image below to see how the dropdown navigation looks in the SharePoint Communication site:

On the Communication site, we can change the Navigation style from Mega menu to Cascading in the Settings option.

I hope this article helped you learn the various ways to create a Dropdown navigation in SharePoint Team sites, Communication sites, and Hub sites. Additionally, we saw how to make one-level and two-level sublinks in the SharePoint dropdown navigation menu with examples.

Moreover, you may like some more SharePoint tutorials:

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• Set Column Default Value in SharePoint Library
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