Manage categories

Add categories in English and Arabic, show or hide them, put them in order and delete one safely.

Goal

Your menu has categories such as Starters, Grills and Drinks, in the order you want, and you know what happens when you hide or delete one.

Before you start

A menu exists (see Menus and drafts)
You can edit menus (owner, admin or menu editor)

Categories are the sections guests scroll through. Each dish belongs to one category. Categories belong to the menu you are editing, so the menu shown under Menu you are editing at the top of the page decides which categories you see. Every change is saved to the draft and reaches guests only after you publish.

Open the Categories page

In the sidebar choose Categories. A new menu shows No categories yet. Check that Menu you are editing shows the right menu.

The Categories page of a new menu with the Add category button — The Add category button

Add a category

Click Add category. Fill in Name (English) and Name (Arabic), both required, with at least 2 characters. Descriptions are optional (up to 160 characters each). Keep Visible to customers on, then click Create. You can have up to 100 categories in a menu.

The Add category dialog with English and Arabic names and descriptions — The English name
The Arabic name
The Visible to customers switch
The Create button

Check the list

Repeat for each category. The list shows the order number, both names, the description, how many dishes each category holds and whether it is visible. The counter above the list says, for example, Showing 3 of 3 categories.

The list of three categories with their descriptions and visibility switches — The first category row
The counter of categories

Change the order

Use the arrow buttons Move up and Move down at the end of a row. The order here is the order guests see. You cannot reorder while a search is active; clear the search first.

The Drinks row with the Move up arrow highlighted — The Move up button of Drinks

The Drinks category now in second place — Drinks, now second in the list

Hide a category without deleting it

Use the switch in the row. When it is off the row says Hidden. A hidden category stays in your dashboard but guests do not see it once you publish. Switch it on again to show it.

The Grills row with the visibility switch turned off and the label Hidden — The visibility switch of Grills

Delete a category

Click the bin icon in the row. The dialog Delete “Drinks”? warns you what happens to its dishes: they become hidden drafts and are marked unavailable, and you can move them to another category to show them again. Nothing changes for guests until you publish. Click Delete to confirm, or Cancel to keep it.

The delete warning dialog saying 1 item will become a hidden draft — The Cancel button
The Delete button

Expected result: Your categories are listed in the order guests will see them. Hidden or deleted categories only disappear for guests after you publish.

Deleting does not delete the dishes

The dishes of a deleted category are kept as hidden drafts, but they are marked unavailable. Open each one in Menu Items, choose another category, set it to Active and turn Availability on before you publish.