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One of the advantages of using Joomla as a content management system is the ability to manage a site's navigation and menus.  One of the most common issues we receive from our clients is, "I have created a new article and added it to my main menu, but the sidebar menu isn't appearing on my new page."

The majority of our clients have drop-down menus for their main navigation.  When a visitor arrives on a sub page of the site, we find it helpful to include the drop-down menu items for that section of the site as a sidebar menu.  Adding menu items to Joomla is fairly simple and straight-forward, the confusion comes when a client adds a new page to the main menu and the sidebar menu does not appear on the new page.

In the Joomla manual we provide for our clients, we explain the process for adding a new page to a menu involves three steps:

1. Create a new article.
2. Add the new article to your main menu.
3. Find the new article's sidebar menu module and click to highlight the new article in the Menu Assignment list.

The third step in this process is the one creating the most confusion.  Here are the appropriate steps to complete the process:

1. After you have created a new article and added it to your main menu (steps #1 and #2 above), go to the Extensions menu and click on "Module Manager."
2. Find the sidebar menu module for the new article's section.  If the new article is a staff page in the About Us section, the module is likely titled, "About Us."
3. In the Menu Assignment list, all of the articles in the About Us section are highlighted, except for your newly created article.  Holding down the Control button on your keyboard, highlight the new article by clicking on its title.
4. Click the Save icon in the top right corner of the screen.
5. You're finished!  Now, the sidebar menu will show up on your new article's page.