I just manually translated my entire site and thought I’d be able to have two different menus for the pages in different languages. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to work. My main menu shows on all the pages, including the translated ones. Is there a workaround?
Hi, @anneliesgeraets . Yes, you can have two different menus.
I assume you are displaying your menu in a header section. You will need a separate header section for each of your menus. So, for example, if you have an English menu and a Spanish menu, you will also need an English header and a Spanish header. The English header will hold your English menu, and the Spanish header will hold your Spanish menu.
On each of your pages, you’ll have to choose the header you want to use – English or Spanish.
Do you know how to create and use alternate header sections?
Could you please provide me your website? @anneliesgeraets
The link below is to a web page created with Editor X. I would like to have the same language switching as on this page.
Hi Jim! I’m at my wit’s end. I’ve tried to make two headers, but whatever I do, I can only have one that shows on every page. When I try to make the second one a master header (in order to be able to choose the one I want later), I don’t have that option. I can only turn it into a master section. When I then put the master section in the location of the header, the master header is replaced automatically. Next I tried to add another menu bar to the header, and that doesn’t work either. Now I wanted to have my Dutch menu items show and then have a ‘More item saying English’, so that the English items are hidden, but that doesn’t seem to work either. I’m out of options now I guess…
@anneliesgeraets , the option to choose which header to use is in the sidebar. In the attached screenshot, you’ll see that I’ve got two headers.
The one that’s in use on my current page (#1) has a checkmark on it. That’s also the ‘default’ header that will appear when you create a new page.
Below it is a second header (#2). When I hover over it (as shown in the screenshot) a ‘Show on Page’ button appears. Click that button and that header will be applied to the current page.
Also note that the ‘context menu’ for a master section includes the option to ‘Remove from Page’. That enables you to remove an unwanted header from your page.
Is this where you’re stuck, or do you have a different problem?
@jim75924 Hi Jim, thank you so much for your kind reply. I totally get what you’re pointing out but here’s what happens: I’ve got one ‘default’ master header, which I have ‘appear’ on certain pages. Then I create a new header on a different page and turn that into a second master header. As you pointed out, I then have two ‘master headers’ in the masters menu but the template of the original ‘default’ master has automatically changed into the new master header I created afterwards. So it appears that there’s two different master headers, but the template of the default changes as soon as I create a new header without me touching it. I have tried to actively remove the default header from the page before I create a new one in one instance and in another instance I have ‘detached the header from the master’ before working on it and turning it into a new master, but in both cases the original template changes along with the new header. I’m really puzzled.
@anneliesgeraets Hmmm. I wonder if it might help if you create an empty ‘practice’ site and walk through the steps there. Maybe it will be less confusing, and then, once you see how it works, you can do it again on your ‘real’ site.
I just created a test site and walked through the steps (to be sure I could explain them clearly), and it worked fine. Here’s the site I created as a test:
https://laborstreet.editorx.io/my-site
Here are the steps:
CHOOSE LANGUAGE PAGE
First, edit the default home page name to rename it to ‘Choose Language’. For clarity, add a title ‘Choose Language’ in the middle of the body. Remove the header from this page.
ENGLISH PAGES
Next, create a new page entitled ‘English One’. For clarity, put a title in the middle of the page body: ‘English One’.
Next, create another new page entitled ‘English Two’. For clarity, put a title in the middle of the page body: ‘English Two’.
Now, on the header for that page, edit the menu. First, rename the menu ‘English’. Next, add items – choose all the pages you’ve created so far.
SPANISH PAGES
Next, create a new page entitled ‘Spanish One’. For clarity, put a title in the middle of the page body: ‘Spanish One’.
Next, create another new page entitled ‘Spanish Two’. For clarity, put a title in the middle of the page body: ‘Spanish Two’.
NEW MENU
While you’re on the Spanish Two page, duplicate the header. This is going to be your Spanish header. On this new header, select the menu and click ‘Manage Menu’. Click the dropdown to select a menu and click ‘Manage Site Menus’. Now click ‘Add new menu’. Name the new menu Spanish.
Now, go back to manage menus, make sure the Spanish menu is selected, click ‘Add new item’ > ‘Site Pages’ and pick the two Spanish pages and the ‘Choose Language’ home page.
HEADERS
You now have two headers on this page, one with an English menu and another with a Spanish menu. Using the context menu, remove the English header from this page.
CHOOSING HEADERS
While you’re still on this page, click the ‘Masters’ icon in the toolbar to open up the sidebar listing of masters. Notice that one of the headers is checked – that’s the Spanish header. Click the three dots to get a menu and choose ‘Show on…’ Then pick the pages on which you want this menu displayed (Spanish One and Spanish Two).
Now go to the other header and click the three dots. This is your English header, so choose the English pages.
HOME PAGE CLEAN UP
Now go to the home page and add buttons for English and Spanish. They will link, respectively, to English One and Spanish One. This page shouldn’t use either header.
If you can make this work, you’ve mastered the process. If you have a problem, note specifically where it happens and let me know.
Hi Jim! Thank you so much for that step by step guide! I finally got it right now. The thing that made the difference was realising that there was a place to select the different menus inside the header. Thanks again!
@jim75924 I’m afraid I need your help again. I’ve done everything you suggested and managed to get everything working. English and Dutch menus show on the right pages. As you know I ‘lost’ my original setting for a hamburger menu in the mobile breakpoint, so as you suggested I ‘hid’ the normal menu and put in a hamburger menu instead. So far so good. Only now, when I want the hamburger menu in the Dutch master to show the Dutch menu that works fine, until I want the hamburger menu in the English master to show the English menu. As soon as I change the menu shown in the hamburger on the English master, the menu in the Dutch master changes along with it. This seems to be the same problem I had before with the other menus, but now even though I know what to do, the hamburger menus in both masters seem to be intertwined and there’s no way to change it.
Do you have any idea what could be wrong?
Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.
@anneliesgeraets I’m between conference calls right now, so I won’t be able to respond in detail, but…
Within the past two days, I saw another post on this subject (dual language sites), and one of the respondents said he/she had successfully completed such a site with only one issue – there can be only one hamburger menu per site.
I haven’t had time since then to check that out, but it may be the case (I’ve never done a dual-menu site, so I haven’t personally dealt with this).
So…
First, it might be worthwhile to ask the Editor X team if this is the case and if they can suggest a workaround. As a possible workaround (and I haven’t thought this through), it might be possible to build alternative menus as lightboxes.
If I get free later today, I’ll try to take a look at this.
@anneliesgeraets Just found this, from 2020, in which the X team says only one hamburger menu is possible. So maybe a lightbox is the best route.
@jim75924 Thank you, Jim. Knowing it’s not me doing something wrong took the weight off a little. I used a workaround. It’s not as elegant, but it does the job. I used the ‘normal menu’ and shrunk it down in size, so that only the ‘more’ is visible. I than changed ‘more’ into ‘menu’. Now there’s the word menu and a drop down list of pages. It does the trick but I think it’s a shame that an otherwise brilliant tool can’t manage different hamburger menus. Thanks again for your support.