<nav> or <menu> (HTML5)

html menu standards nav
anon271334 picture anon271334 · Feb 11, 2011 · Viewed 70.3k times · Source

W3Schools.com and I'm pretty sure I remember seeing W3C.org state that <menu> should be used for Toolbar menus and listing form control commands.

So, which one should I use for my main menu? Nav, or Menu? Does it matter?

Answer

zzzzBov picture zzzzBov · Feb 11, 2011

nav is used for groups of internal links (a elements). Generally this means the links should travel to separate pages, or change content in the case of an AJAX page. Expect some sort of content change when clicking on a nav item.

menu is used for groups of controls (a, input, button). Generally this means the inputs should perform a function within the page. Expect some sort of javascript interaction when clicking on a menu item.

nav: the navigation for the site.

menu: the menu for a web application.

Related questions

How to make the HTML link activated by clicking on the <li>?

I have the following markup, <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="#">Something1</a></li> <li><a href="#">Something2</a></li> <li&…

Read More
How to make a HTML list appear horizontally instead of vertically using CSS only?

I need this because I want to make a menu (which is made from a HTML list) appear horizontally. I prefer not to use absolute positioning since it might become messy when I start changing the layout of the page. …

Read More
How to make a 3-level collapsing menu in Bootstrap?

I am trying to make a 3-level collapsing navbar menu for Bootstrap, but I can't open the third level. This is the two level menu which I have: I thought something like this would work: <link href="https://stackpath.…

Read More