Menu Builder
Create custom navigation menus and place any screen into them — including apps you designed yourself in App Builder. This is the tool that turns a saved design into something your team can actually click and open.
What Is Menu Builder?
Menu Builder lets you build your own navigation menus from scratch — a named group of links that appears in TotalApp's top navigation bar. Each menu can hold any mix of items: TotalApp's built-in screens (Kanban Board, Invoice Manager, anything else already in the app) and apps you designed yourself in App Builder, side by side in the same menu.
It's the second half of a two-step process: App Builder designs a screen, Menu Builder makes it reachable. A screen designed in App Builder that has never been added to a menu stays a private draft — Menu Builder is what turns it into something your team can find and click.
In one sentence
Menu Builder creates named groups of links for your top navigation bar, and its screen picker lets you add both built-in TotalApp screens and your own App Builder-designed apps to any menu.
Creating a Menu
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1. Click "New Menu" | A new, empty menu appears with a default name. Click its title to rename it to whatever makes sense for your team — e.g. "Vendor Tools" or "Weekly Reports". |
| 2. Add Screens | Click "Add Screen" inside the menu to open the screen picker. Search and select any built-in screen or any app you've designed in App Builder. |
| 3. Reorder if Needed | Drag any menu (by its grip handle) to reorder menus, or drag any item within a menu to reorder that menu's contents. |
| 4. Done — It's Live | There's no separate "publish" step. As soon as a menu has at least one item, it appears in the top navigation bar for your whole workspace. |
Changes appear immediately, no publish button
Every change in Menu Builder — adding a menu, adding an item, renaming, reordering, deleting — saves and takes effect right away. There's nothing to "publish" separately.
The Screen Picker — Two Kinds of Screens in One List
Clicking "Add Screen" opens a search-as-you-type picker with two sections:
My App Builder Apps
Every app you've saved in App Builder, listed first. Selecting one adds it to your menu exactly as you designed it.
Built-in Screens
Every screen already available in TotalApp — the same set you'd find in the regular sidebar — searchable by name.
Type in the search box to filter both sections at once by name. A screen already added to the current menu is greyed out and marked so you don't add it twice.
Managing Items Inside a Menu
Every item inside a menu can be:
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Renamed | Hover the item and click the pencil icon — the label you set here is what appears in the menu, independent of the screen's own internal name. |
| Removed | Hover the item and click the trash icon. This only removes it from this menu — it doesn't delete the underlying screen or App Builder app. |
| Reordered | Drag the item by its grip handle to a new position within the same menu. |
App Builder apps show a distinct icon in the menu
Items backed by an App Builder-designed app show a small purple icon instead of the screen's normal icon, so you can tell at a glance which menu items are your own custom apps versus built-in TotalApp screens.
What Happens When Someone Opens Your App
Clicking a built-in screen's menu entry navigates there the same way it always has. Clicking an App Builder app's menu entry is slightly different: instead of switching to a built-in screen, TotalApp renders your saved design live — every Form, Input, Button, Badge, and Table you assembled, turned into a real, working screen — without leaving the current menu context or disturbing your place elsewhere in the app.
AI Assistant
Menu Builder has its own AI Assistant panel, opened from the right edge of the screen. It reads all of your current custom menus and their items, and helps you keep your navigation organized. Example prompts:
Where Menu Builder Fits
Menu Builder is the second half of the App Factory pair — it depends on App Builder for anything beyond built-in screens:
| Tool | Relationship |
|---|---|
| App Builder | Designs the custom screens that Menu Builder's screen picker can then add to a menu. Without a saved App Builder app, only built-in screens are available to add. |
Menu Builder also manages menus for built-in screens
You don't need an App Builder app to use Menu Builder — it's equally useful for organizing your team's frequently-used built-in screens into a custom, purpose-named menu, with no App Builder involvement at all.