<\/a>Why Use Subpages?<\/h2>\nThe best use of subpages is to organize hierarchical content into a hierarchy or outline.<\/p>\n
The subpage feature should not be used to paginate a long page.\u00a0If you didn’t already know, James thinks Pagination Is Evil<\/a>, and that\u2019s not<\/em> what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\nIf you simply have a long page, use the nextpage tag<\/a>, which paginates a long page or post.<\/p>\nWe can already do this simply by using the HTML heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) as is done in most items posted here at WPMUDEV.com, and in this post. But subpages add the additional abilities to place them on the menu, in a sidebar menu, and provide navigation between them.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Creating Subpages and Adding to the Main Menu<\/h2>\nBefore we can use any of the advanced subpage features, let\u2019s see how to create subpages.<\/p>\n
When adding or editing a page, in the right hand-column under the heading Page Attributes<\/strong>, select Parent <\/em>for the page, making the page we\u2019re working on a subpage or \u201cchild\u201d of \u201cCV\u201d.<\/p>\nThe other \u201cExhibition\u201d pages listed under are parent (\u201cCV\u201d) are also subpages, and are the \u201csiblings\u201d of the \u201cCeline Raphel-Leygues\u201d page.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Page](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/page-attributes-parent-child-siblings-1050x528.png\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nOnce a subpage has been created, it can be added to the menu by hand. Or better yet, by using a plugin to Automatically Add WordPress Submenu to Parent Menu for Pages<\/a>, giving this result:<\/p>\n![\"Main](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/header-parent-child-sibling-page-menus-1050x459.png\")
Subpages in the main menu dropdown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>Using a Widget to Place a Subpage Menu in a Sidebar<\/h2>\nIn the following example, I first used the Subpages Extended<\/a> plugin to create a subpage menu in the sidebar.<\/p>\n![\"Subpages](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/subpages-extended-screenshot-1050x773.png\")
Subpages Extended<\/em> plugin in the Page editor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThen I used the Custom Sidebars<\/a> plugin to display this menu on the parent page and its subpages only.<\/p>\n![\"Subpage](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/subpages-menu-in-sidebar-1050x583.png\")
Subpage menu in sidebar created with the Subpages Extended and Custom Sidebars plugins.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Subpages Extended<\/em> plugin creates a subpages navigation (table of contents) on your pages and your sidebar.<\/p>\nThe widget option is so easy to use, and the shortcode option gives you more control for manipulating your subpages menus.<\/p>\n
Here is the basic shortcode usage:<\/p>\n
[subpages exceptme=\u201dtrue\u201d childof=\u201d253\u2033]<\/code><\/p>\nThe Custom Sidebars<\/em> plugin is a flexible widget area manager that allows you to replace sidebars\u2014and other widget areas\u2014on your site. (Custom Sidebars works with the classic widgets screen that was used in WordPress before version 5.8. To use it with version 5.8 and above, you\u2019ll need to install the official Classic Widgets<\/a> plugin).<\/p>\n<\/a>Using a Plugin for Improved Navigation on Each Subpage<\/h2>\nWhen using the nextpage<\/em><\/a> WordPress tag, the navigation inserted at the bottom of each paginated page simply lists the paginated pages as numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4) with each page number linked appropriately.<\/p>\nThis works fine for breaking up a long page, but not when we want to organize the information into subpages to gain the benefits of the subpage feature and plugins. (See Pagination: How to Split a WordPress Post into Multiple Pages<\/a> tutorial.)<\/p>\nI used the List Pages Shortcodes<\/a> plugin to place navigation at the top of each subpage and the parent page.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s what it looks like on one of the subpages:<\/p>\n![\"Subpage](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Subpage-navigation-using-List-Pages-Shortcodes-plugin-1050x425.png\")
Subpage navigation on subpage using the List Pages Shortcodes plugin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThis is the shortcode I used:<\/p>\n
[sibling-pages exclude=\"150\"]<\/code><\/p>\nI chose to exclude a link to the subpage currently being displayed from these links. In this example \u201cExhibitions 2020\u20132022\u201d is pageid<\/em> 150, and is excluded in the shortcode.<\/p>\nOne other plugin I made use of was Catch Ids<\/a>\u2014making it easier to determine the pageid\u2019s<\/em> for my parent page and subpages.<\/p>\nThough some of these plugins are a year or more out from updates, we tested them (during the 2022 rewrite of this post), and they still worked as expected.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Wrapping Up<\/h2>\nSo there you have it. A neat and tidy way to implement subpages and widgets, using a few handy plugins, and a bit of shortcode.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy.
\n[Originally Published: September 2013 \/ Revised: April 2022]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subpages are a powerful tool for organizing a WordPress site with many useful plugins to enhance their use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132068,"featured_media":208087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[655],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-83262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-pages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83262"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209177,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262\/revisions\/209177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83262"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=83262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
If you simply have a long page, use the nextpage tag<\/a>, which paginates a long page or post.<\/p>\n We can already do this simply by using the HTML heading tags (h1, h2, h3, etc.) as is done in most items posted here at WPMUDEV.com, and in this post. But subpages add the additional abilities to place them on the menu, in a sidebar menu, and provide navigation between them.<\/p>\n Before we can use any of the advanced subpage features, let\u2019s see how to create subpages.<\/p>\n When adding or editing a page, in the right hand-column under the heading Page Attributes<\/strong>, select Parent <\/em>for the page, making the page we\u2019re working on a subpage or \u201cchild\u201d of \u201cCV\u201d.<\/p>\n The other \u201cExhibition\u201d pages listed under are parent (\u201cCV\u201d) are also subpages, and are the \u201csiblings\u201d of the \u201cCeline Raphel-Leygues\u201d page.<\/p>\n Once a subpage has been created, it can be added to the menu by hand. Or better yet, by using a plugin to Automatically Add WordPress Submenu to Parent Menu for Pages<\/a>, giving this result:<\/p>\n In the following example, I first used the Subpages Extended<\/a> plugin to create a subpage menu in the sidebar.<\/p>\n Then I used the Custom Sidebars<\/a> plugin to display this menu on the parent page and its subpages only.<\/p>\n The Subpages Extended<\/em> plugin creates a subpages navigation (table of contents) on your pages and your sidebar.<\/p>\n The widget option is so easy to use, and the shortcode option gives you more control for manipulating your subpages menus.<\/p>\n Here is the basic shortcode usage:<\/p>\n The Custom Sidebars<\/em> plugin is a flexible widget area manager that allows you to replace sidebars\u2014and other widget areas\u2014on your site. (Custom Sidebars works with the classic widgets screen that was used in WordPress before version 5.8. To use it with version 5.8 and above, you\u2019ll need to install the official Classic Widgets<\/a> plugin).<\/p>\n When using the nextpage<\/em><\/a> WordPress tag, the navigation inserted at the bottom of each paginated page simply lists the paginated pages as numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4) with each page number linked appropriately.<\/p>\n This works fine for breaking up a long page, but not when we want to organize the information into subpages to gain the benefits of the subpage feature and plugins. (See Pagination: How to Split a WordPress Post into Multiple Pages<\/a> tutorial.)<\/p>\n I used the List Pages Shortcodes<\/a> plugin to place navigation at the top of each subpage and the parent page.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what it looks like on one of the subpages:<\/p>\n This is the shortcode I used:<\/p>\n I chose to exclude a link to the subpage currently being displayed from these links. In this example \u201cExhibitions 2020\u20132022\u201d is pageid<\/em> 150, and is excluded in the shortcode.<\/p>\n One other plugin I made use of was Catch Ids<\/a>\u2014making it easier to determine the pageid\u2019s<\/em> for my parent page and subpages.<\/p>\n Though some of these plugins are a year or more out from updates, we tested them (during the 2022 rewrite of this post), and they still worked as expected.<\/p>\n So there you have it. A neat and tidy way to implement subpages and widgets, using a few handy plugins, and a bit of shortcode.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: This post has been updated for accuracy and relevancy. Subpages are a powerful tool for organizing a WordPress site with many useful plugins to enhance their use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132068,"featured_media":208087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[655],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-83262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-pages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83262"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209177,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83262\/revisions\/209177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83262"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=83262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Creating Subpages and Adding to the Main Menu<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/a>Using a Widget to Place a Subpage Menu in a Sidebar<\/h2>\n
[subpages exceptme=\u201dtrue\u201d childof=\u201d253\u2033]<\/code><\/p>\n<\/a>Using a Plugin for Improved Navigation on Each Subpage<\/h2>\n
[sibling-pages exclude=\"150\"]<\/code><\/p>\n<\/a>Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n
\n[Originally Published: September 2013 \/ Revised: April 2022]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"