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.