By default, Tridion organizes your navigation first by structure group and second by alphabetical order. Below are some tips for overriding or controlling the default Tridion behaviors.
When setting up sub-folders within your site, you should generally avoid mixing structure groups and pages in the same sub-folders. Here's an example of a sub-folder that has a mix of both structure groups and sub-pages:
If the navigation was republished with the structure group in its current state, what will happen is that all the pink structure group folders will appear first in the navigation menu, and all the pages would appear underneath the structure group items, like this:
No amount of trying to trying to adjust the names of pages and folders will result in the system mixing the two items together in the navigation. They will always display structure groups first, pages second.
To repair this, we recommend that you either have all structure groups in a sub-folder (not including the index page that is required in all sub-folders), or all pages. Following this format will permit you to organize the navigation as you desire.
Once you've got your sub-folders cleaned up, you will notice that Tridion then organizes everything in alphabetical order. It is possible to override this by inserting triple digit numbers in front of everything. For example, "010 About the Board, "020 Board Policies," "030 Communications," and so on. The system will then arrange your content based on your numbering system, and not by the title of the folders or pages.
We recommend using a triple digit numbering system that starts at 010 and jumps in multiples of tens (020, 030, 040, 050, etc). Triple digits leave wiggle room for growth without having to renumber everything (for example, you can add a 015 folder later on if you need to insert something between 010 and 020). We often get asked why not use double digits numbers (10, 20, 30) instead? The reason is because these can be quickly outgrown in some sub-folders. Once you hit the hundreds, Tridion will start organizing your content like this: 10, 100, 110, 120, 20, 30, 40.
More information can be found on our file organization page about how the numbering system works and why we recommend using it.
