Published by Sid
on 11 December 2007
Filled under: Software
14 Comments

How to hide or exclude a page from the WordPress main menu

The main menu is populated by your theme, probably by the header.php file, with the function
<?php wp_list_pages('arguments'); ?>
So, if you want to exclude a specific page from being on the main menu I would suggest these two solutions:

  1. The simply oneIf your theme shows just the root pages and you don’t mind about the real position of the page…
    1. Create an empty root page and set its state to draft, in this way it will not appear in the main menu.
    2. Create the desired page under the just-created one and publish it.The page will be available from the slug
  2. The true oneIf you need the page to be root, or if your theme shows page childrends…
    1. Open header.php from your theme directory
    2. Modify the wp_list_pages function adding an exclude parameter, like the following exampleBefore:
      <?php wp_list_pages('title_li='); ?>
      After:
      <?php wp_list_pages('exclude=123,456&title_li='); ?>
      Where 123 and 456 are the ids of the pages you want to exclude from the list

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14 Comments

  1. Jim wrote:
    1 October 2008 at 15:45

    Thanks a lot for the tips. It helps me a lot for Hiding my page in Home page. Added this Tips in my collection.

    Reply
  2. Fedmich wrote:
    1 October 2008 at 15:52

    Doesn’t work anymore on new version of wp.

    but this patch worked for me, http://www.texto.de/texto/wp-25-wp_list_pages-exclude-bugfix/#comment-21715

    Reply
  3. sandrar wrote:
    10 September 2009 at 15:37

    Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

    Reply
  4. angelina jolie wrote:
    10 September 2009 at 17:20

    I love your site. :) Love design!!! I just came across your blog and wanted to say that I?ve really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. Sign: ndsam

    Reply
  5. shine wrote:
    22 October 2009 at 08:02

    Yes ! Really helpful .. Thanks for the post

    Reply
  6. gcreator wrote:
    13 March 2010 at 10:51

    great post!

    But i have a question : How to make a page at menu bar invisible but no hidden?

    thanks!-sorry for my bad english!

    Reply
  7. Sid wrote:
    13 March 2010 at 11:16

    mcreator: what’s the difference between invisible and hidden?!?

    Reply
  8. gcreator wrote:
    13 March 2010 at 11:24

    dear Sid , i mean how to make a page unclickable

    e.g. make unclickable a parent page

    Reply
  9. Beeb Ashcroft wrote:
    21 April 2010 at 19:30

    This worked like a charm! Thanks so much for your post!

    Reply
  10. NoMad wrote:
    13 May 2010 at 22:45

    It worked, thanks, but you have to know what is the page id… see link below for a helpful hint:
    http://www.techtrot.com/wordpress-page-id/

    Reply
  11. Woodcarver Vinko wrote:
    30 October 2011 at 04:37

    That was a very helpful article.
    Just fixed an issue at my blog.
    Thank you!

    Reply
  12. orbit wrote:
    17 February 2012 at 15:34

    I’m new at this and I’m very confused. I would like some pages to be hidden from the main navigation menu but still be able to be linked to.
    The thing I don’t know is where exactly do I put the code?

    The theme I am modifying is the Brunelleschi theme, and there is no wp_list_pages in the header.php file.

    Do I just need to add it in there somewhere?

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

    Reply
  13. Cindy wrote:
    13 March 2012 at 03:11

    Thanks for this guide! Now i will not use plugin for excluding pages.

    Reply