SharePoint Online: Enable Top Navigation in Team Sites

Requirement: Enable the top navigation bar by switching navigation in SharePoint Online Team sites.

How to add the top navigation bar in SharePoint Online?

SharePoint Online navigation switcher is rolled out finally! A much-awaited feature enables you to change the navigation to either vertical (top navigation) or Horizontal (left navigation). In the past, Only communication sites had Horizontal top navigation, and Team sites were left with quick launch navigation vertically. Now, Microsoft introduced the navigation switcher options for modern team sites that let us change the navigation orientation to Horizontal or vertical (No change in the “Communication” site template, though!). Here are the steps to switch the navigation in SharePoint Online:

  1. Login to your SharePoint Online site >> Click on the Settings gear.
  2. Click on “Change the Look” in the settings menu.sharepoint online horizontal navigation
  3. Click on “Navigation” under “Change the look” pane.sharepoint online vertical navigation
  4. Now, you can set the orientation of the navigation to either “Horizontal” or “Vertical”. You can also hide the navigation by turning off the “Site Navigation visibility” switch.sharepoint online switch navigation horizontal vertical
  5. Click on the “Save” button to commit your changes.

We also have the ability to set horizontal navigation to “Mega Menu” or “Cascading Menu”.

sharepoint online teamsite mega menu cascading menu

PowerShell to Set Horizontal navigation bar in SharePoint Online

How do I create a horizontal navigation bar in SharePoint Online? We can move the quick launch from vertical (left navigation) to horizontal (Top navigation) using PowerShell too to add top navigation in SharePoint Online team sites.

#Variables
$SiteURL="https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Retail/US"

Try {
    #Connect to the Sub-Site
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive
    
    #Get the subsite
    $Web = Get-PnPWeb
    
    #change the quick launch oritentation
    $Web.HorizontalQuickLaunch = $true
    $Web.Update()
    Invoke-PnPQuery
     
    Write-host "Navigation settings Updated!" -ForegroundColor Green  
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error Setting Navigation!" $_.Exception.Message
}

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

13 thoughts on “SharePoint Online: Enable Top Navigation in Team Sites

  • It does not work on a “Team Site”. The navigator option is only available for communication sites. How did you get it?

    Reply
  • I need to enable the “SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” which is changing the “look” and I have only the quick launch on the left hand site, how can I bring back the top navigation (horizontally)?

    Reply
  • Hi, nice article.
    I need one more thing, i want to enable site Navigation visibility on using PNP PowerShel and apply vertical navigation by default .

    Currently when i am provisioning its hidden by default.

    Reply
  • How can I make the change using PnP Powershell

    Reply
  • I’m in a government tenant so I can’t get to the admin center. We were on a teams call and told the option was available, but its just not showing up for me…

    Reply
  • Any chance of removing the recycle bin ?

    Reply
  • What do you do if you have a modern team site and that option isn’t showing up? I only see Theme and Header as an option…

    Reply

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