Relevant portion of O Govinda's commentary from http://drupal.org/node/101090:
Home » Administer » Help » Menu
REVISED:
Menus are sets of links (menu items) used to navigate a website. The menu module lets you control and customize the powerful menu system that comes with Drupal. Menus appear mainly as hierarchical lists of links, shown by using Drupal's BLOCKS [link] feature. By default, new menu items are placed inside a built-in menu labelled Navigation, but you can also create new menus.
Drupal themes generally provide out-of-the-box support for two menus, commonly labelled primary links and secondary links. These two sets of links are usually displayed in each page's header or footer (whichever the theme may specify). You can make any menu the one for primary or secondary links via the MENU SETTINGS PAGE [link].
Menu administration tabs:
[BEGIN INDENTED SECTION, WITH BULLET POINTS]
On the administer menu page, administrators can "edit" to change the title, description, parent or weight of a menu item. Under the "operations" column, click "enable" or "disable" to toggle a menu item on or off. Only menu items that are enabled are displayed. You can also delete menus items. But the default menu items generated by the menu module cannot be deleted, only disabled.
To create a new menu, use the "add menu" tab. Once you submit a title for your new menu, that title will appear towards the top of the administer menu page. Under that title you will see links by which you can edit the menu, delete it, or add to it new items.
[DISPENSE WITH THE BULLET FOR THIS PARAGRAPH] When you create a new menu and give it a name, Drupal automatically creates a block for it with the same name. For your menu to appear to your users, you must go to the BLOCKS ADMINISTRATION PAGE [link] and enable that block. That page, too, lets you choose where on each page your block will appear. And the configure link given for each block lets you further choose which pages your block will appear on, to whom, and under which circumstances.
To create a new link in any menu, click the "add menu item" tab at the top of the page (or the "add item" tab beneath the name of any menu). You'll then see a dialogue page. There, under "parent item," you can choose where within the existing menu structure you want your new item to appear. Choose the name of a top-level item or any item beneath, and in the menu your item will be placed below it.
[END INDENTED SECTION]
On the CONFIGURE PERMISSIONS PAGE [link] you can decide who is allowed to administer menus on your site and who can administer blocks (thereby making menus visible). When users who have permission to administer menus create content, they can add new menu items for that content "on the fly."
For more information please read the configuration and customization handbook Menu page.
Menu administration pages
Menus
Blocks [MY COMMENT: NOTE this added item]
Configure permissions
Comment | File | Size | Author |
---|---|---|---|
#1 | menu-help-text.patch | 5.6 KB | keith.smith |
Comments
Comment #1
keith.smith CreditAttribution: keith.smith commentedRemoved some crufty bits, added in some new bits, added in drag-and-drop details on the admin/build/menu-customize/% page. (Though I just now realized that we really need "Remember that your changes will not be saved until you click the Save configuration button at the bottom of the page." on blocks and forums, as well, so I'll go back and add that in on those issues.)
Comment #2
Gábor HojtsyThanks, fixed an @addmenu to @add-menu but otherwise found this new text good. It also makes it easier to translate the text and updates for drag an drop so committed.
Comment #3
(not verified) CreditAttribution: commentedAutomatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.