While more advanced users may want to manually edit their Theme’s functions.php to customize and reorder their WordPress dashboard menu, regular users can use the Admin Menu Editor plugin to make the process easier and reduce the chance of error.
Table of Contents
How to install the Admin Menu Editor plugin
Download the Admin Menu Editor plugin HERE.
- In your WordPress dashboard, click on Plugins in the sidebar.
- Click on the Add Plugin button in the top left.
- Search for Admin Menu Editor and click Install Now button.
- Activate your new plugin.
- Click on Menu Editor in the sidebar, which you’ll now find in the Settings section.
Exploring the Admin Menu tab
Inside the Menu Editor, ensure you’re on the first tab at the top labeled Admin Menu.
- From here you can simply drag and drop menu items to reorder them. Admin Menu Editor will also allow you to reorder sub-menu items, such as All Posts, Add Post, Categories, and Tags inside of the main Posts menu item.
- Add, remove, or move separators to keep like menu items together.
- Be sure to hit the Save Changes button in the top right to save your new menu changes.
Note: if you have the Wordfence plugin on your website, it may flag your new menu order when you hit the Save Changes button. If this happens, mark it as a Safe Activity, refresh the browser page, and then it will allow you to save your changes.
Control who can see what
If you twizzle down the arrow on any menu item, you’ll see more parameters you can adjust:
- Change the Menu Title name.
- Change the Target Page.
- Restrict specific users from seeing the menu item with the Extra Capability dropdown menu. For more on how to hide menu items, click HERE.
- Or Click Show Advanced Options to gain access to the CSS classes and Window Title fields.
Use the button bar to speed up the process
Use the buttons to make quick changes, such as:
- Cut, copy, or paste
- Add a separator
- Create a new menu
- Hide without preventing access
- Delete a menu
- Sort the entire menu (ascending or descending)
Don’t like the changes you made?
You can revert to the default WordPress menu by clicking the Load Default menu button.
Set User Roles
If you want to restrict specific users/roles from viewing a menu item, you can set the user roles on the Redirects tab.
Hide plugins from other users
The Plugins tab will allow you to further customize who gets to see and access each individual plugin.
Adjust Parameters in Settings tab to further customize
While you can leave everything in the Settings tab at defaults, two items I chose to tweak were the Editor Color Scheme and the New Menu Position.
I specifically want any new menu items to be added to the very bottom of the sidebar. This will help me find, say, a newly installed plugin instantly without having to search for it via the default relative ordering WordPress usually employs.
Save time and extra steps with Admin Menu Editor
This the final result of the top of my WordPress Dashboard Menu now after I made changes with the Admin Menu Editor plugin.
This lightweight plugin is the perfect little time-saver for popping your most-used items near the top of the menu, but it’s also chock full of a lot of useful settings to help you customize your user experience even further.