Quick access:
1. "Add Menu"
1.1. Create documents or libraries
1.2. Add pages and group pages in categories
1.3. Create navigation links
Introduction to the Navigation Manager
Managing your Guidelines is easy with our Navigation Manager!
Effortlessly add, edit, move, and share your documents, libraries, links, categories, and pages in one convenient place. With its powerful features, you'll be able to build engaging and lightning-fast Guidelines that are easy to navigate for everyone.
The Navigation Manager is located on the Power Bar on the left side of your screen. When clicking on the icon, you can instantly see the hierarchy of your current Guidelines.
Pages Actions in the Navigation Manager
With the Navigation Manager, you have an overview of your structure which you can easily edit to create clear and compelling Brand Guidelines.
1. “Add Menu”
On the top level, you have the possibility to enrich your guidelines with a Cover Page, Document page, Library, Navigation Link, or Document Group. To add these elements, simply hover over and click the Add Button. These pages will be shown on your Top Navigation bar.Document Groups are particularly useful as they allow you to create sub-levels within your guidelines, providing a hierarchical structure for better organization.
On the document level, you can add individual pages or categories to bundle multiple pages together and create clear sections within your Guidelines.
1.1. Create documents or libraries.
To add a document or a library, hover over the "Add Menu" on the top level and choose from the options.
How libraries appear in Guidelines
Libraries appear in the frontend of your Guidelines when they are added through the Navigation Manager. Removing a library from the Navigation Manager removes its frontend access, but does not delete the library from the backend.
Currently, libraries can only be shown in Guidelines when they appear in the top-level navigation.
1.2. Add pages and group pages in categories
The hierarchy is the following:
When you add the document level, you can create a category or a single page.
The category level allows you to group multiple items that would otherwise cramp your navigation. This includes pages and libraries sorted in particular categories that are easier to access and search in clusters.
Finally, adding a Heading block on a page automatically creates a sub-section of that page. This block also creates a clickable link in the sidebar navigation below the page link which that heading block is on.
1.3. Create navigation links
The advantage of having a navigation links option is that you can link to other Guidelines within Frontify and/or external systems your brand and business might use, like a wiki or intranet.
If you have other Guidelines you’d like to include in the navigation, copy the link for that Guideline and add it like so:
If you're linking an internal page, we recommend only using the URL piece after your company's Frontify URL (e.g. /hub/14 instead of https://company.frontify.com/hub/14). This is to avoid redoing the internal link in case of a domain change. Users need access to several areas of your brand; this includes external links to content that might live outside your Frontify environment. Linking to those pages from the top navigation will ensure they are still a part of your brand structure, where you can keep everything in one place.
Organizing Assets with Collections
Frontify allows for efficient asset management by grouping similar items into Collections. For example, separate Collections can be created for logos, fonts, and other visual elements. These Collections can then be directly embedded into your Guidelines, maintaining a coherent structure.
2. “Action Menu”
When selecting the page level of your Guideline - for example, your page to document your colors or tone of voice - when hovering over the three dots, you can select from multiple actions to perform on a page.
You can rename, publish, unpublish, duplicate, copy link, move, or add targets to the selected page in one place.
3. Quick actions
We have also added convenient features to enable more efficiency and ease of use for everyone, empowering users to view, edit, and share your Guideline contents in one place.
Renaming - simply double-click on the page title within the Navigation Manager and change it to your desired title
Drag and drop - move your pages as you like with the quick drag & drop possibilities.
The Navigation Manager brings a clear overview and empowers everyone to create well-structured and accessible Guidelines in one place.
Best Practices for Structuring Brand Guidelines
Plan Your Sections: Outline the main sections and sub-sections before setting up your Guidelines.
Leverage Sub-levels: Use Document Groups to distinguish related content clearly.
Centralize Assets: Manage and link visuals or documents through Collections for easier accessibility.
Prioritize Usability: Design your structure to align with user navigation patterns and needs.