Yes. Admins can set a default sidebar menu for each role, or for one specific person. Role permissions still decide which pages anyone can see.

Before you start

  • Custom menus must be switched on for your account. If they aren’t, the Menu Defaults page shows a notice. Defaults you save are kept and take effect once the feature is on.
  • You need the Manage Default Menus permission, found under Menu Layouts in the role editor.

Set a default menu for a role

  1. Go to Manage → Menu Defaults. You can also go to Manage → Staff, click ⋮ next to + Add New, and choose Manage Menu Defaults.
  2. On the Roles tab, click the pencil icon on the role’s row. The tab label shows how many roles have a default set (for example, “0 of 6 set”). 3.Choose how the menu should look:
  • Pin pages. Pinned pages stay at the top of the sidebar, outside any group.
  • Uncheck pages. Unchecked pages move into More, which is still one click away.
  • Drag the top-level groups to reorder them.
  • Click Start over to undo your changes. This button appears once you’ve made a change.
  1. Click Save default.

The What members use · last 30 days panel shows which pages the role’s members opened recently, which helps you decide what to pin.

To remove a saved default, click Clear default.

Set a menu for one person

On the Specific users tab, click Add user default, find the person by name or email, and edit their menu the same way. This replaces their role default for that person only.

How permissions affect the menu

  • A default only changes where someone starts. Pages a person’s permissions don’t allow stay hidden, whatever the menu says.
  • In the editor, those pages are greyed out, and a notice tells you how many there are.
  • Every page a person can open stays reachable from More and search.
  • Someone with several roles sees a page if any of their roles shows it. They also get every role’s pins.
  • Pages added to Luminous later still show up for everyone.

Can users customize their own menu?

Yes. Users can click Customize menu at the bottom of the sidebar. Their own changes are kept, and anything they leave alone follows the default. The Customized their own column on the Roles tab shows how many members have done this.

To change which pages a role can open at all, go to Manage → Staff → ⋮ → Manage Roles. See How to Manage User Roles and Staff Members.