Title: Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor Author: Dan Knauss Published: June 17, 2026 Last modified: June 17, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/maestro-menu-editor/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=3575264) ![](https://ps.w.org/maestro-menu-editor/assets/icon.svg?rev=3575264) # Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor By [Dan Knauss](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpknauss/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/maestro-menu-editor.1.1.0.zip) * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/maestro-menu-editor/#description) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/maestro-menu-editor/#reviews) * [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/maestro-menu-editor/#installation) * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/maestro-menu-editor/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/maestro-menu-editor/) ## Description **Maestro is an inline admin menu editor.** Instead of a separate settings screen, it turns the WordPress admin menu into something you edit _in place_ — right where it lives. Toggle **Edit Menu** from the admin bar and the menu becomes editable: click a label to rename it, drag rows to reorder, swap a top-level icon, or hide items from chosen roles. **Try it first.** Launch a throwaway demo in [WordPress Playground](https://playground.wordpress.net/?blueprint-url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dknauss/Maestro/main/playground/blueprint-hosted.json)— it boots a site with Maestro active, User Switching, and test users (editor, author, contributor, subscriber; password `password`) so you can try per-role visibility by switching users before you install anything. #### What you can do * **Rename** any top-level or submenu item — just click the label. * **Reorder** items by dragging (top-level items among themselves, submenu items within their parent), or with the keyboard (`Alt`+`Arrow`). * **Swap icons** on top-level items. The picker offers dashicons and bundled Bootstrap Icons with search, and accepts any of WordPress’s four native icon forms (dashicon,“ none”, base64 image data-URI, or an image URL). * **Hide** items from chosen roles — including administrators. Custom roles registered by other plugins ([User Role Editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/user-role-editor/), [Members](https://wordpress.org/plugins/members/), etc.) appear automatically. * **Reset** a single item to its WordPress default, or reset everything at once. Changes are **global** — one configuration applies to everyone — and are stored as a sparse delta layered over the menu WordPress builds on each load. Nothing is rebuilt or duplicated, so a reset simply removes the delta and the original menu returns. #### Important: visibility is cosmetic, not access control Hiding a menu item only declutters the menu. The underlying admin page still loads for anyone who knows or types its URL, because a page’s own registered **capability** is the true lock. Maestro operates on the menu (presentation), which is a different plane from authorization. If you need to actually _prevent_ access, pair Maestro with a capability manager: * **[User Role Editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/user-role-editor/)** — the simplest way to edit what a role can do. * **[PublishPress Capabilities](https://wordpress.org/plugins/capability-manager-enhanced/)**— menu-aware; its Pro tier can block admin pages by URL. The `maestro_capability` filter lets such a plugin hand editing rights to a custom capability instead of the default `manage_options`. #### Accessibility and localization The editor is keyboard-operable end to end — select with `Enter`/`Space`, reorder with `Alt`+`Arrow`, and every move and save is announced to screen readers. Modified items carry a non-color indicator with screen-reader text, so state never depends on color alone. Maestro uses the `maestro-menu-editor` text domain and ships a translation template plus starter language packs for Spanish (`es_ES`), German (`de_DE`), Japanese (` ja`), French (`fr_FR`), Portuguese – Brazil (`pt_BR`), and Italian (`it_IT`). WordPress. org language packs override and extend these; native-speaker and WordPress Polyglots review is welcome. ### Architecture (for developers) * `Config` — reads/writes/sanitizes a single option (`maestro_config`) holding only the deltas. Reset = delete the option; the natural menu returns automatically. * `Replay` — on a late `admin_menu` pass, applies rename/icon/visibility to the $menu/`$submenu` globals and reorders submenus. Top-level order uses the core` custom_menu_order` + `menu_order` filters. Resilient to missing slugs (orphans are skipped) and new items (appended at the end). * `Rest` — `maestro/v1/config` (GET/POST/DELETE), capability-gated, `X-WP-Nonce`. * The editor JS is driven by a localized model (with DOM ids), not DOM scraping, and diffs against captured pristine defaults so the stored config stays sparse. * Localized editor labels are passed from PHP to JavaScript in `maestroData.i18n`; the runtime zip includes the bundled POT template and starter catalogs. ### Known limits / deferred to v2 * **Reparenting** (moving an item between a top-level position and a submenu) is not included. Top-level items reorder among top-level items and submenu items reorder within their current parent. Reparenting needs hand-splicing of the globals plus `parent_file`/`submenu_file` highlighting fixes — a known minefield, parked deliberately. * **Separators** are preserved in place but not yet add/move/delete-able; their generated slugs (`separator1`…) have no stable identity to key against. * **Renaming** an item drops any core-appended count badge (e.g. pending comments) from that label, since the badge lives inside the title string. * Submenu sort relies on items registering by the late `admin_menu` pass; a plugin that registers submenus on an unusually late hook may not be captured. ### Credits Bundled [Bootstrap Icons](https://icons.getbootstrap.com/) are © The Bootstrap Authors, licensed under the MIT License. They are recoloured to the WordPress menu grey and embedded as data-URIs; see `bin/generate-bootstrap-icons.mjs`. ## Screenshots [⌊Editing the admin menu in place — the Posts item selected, with the shared controls panel (rename, icon, visibility, reset) open.⌉⌊Editing the admin menu in place — the Posts item selected, with the shared controls panel (rename, icon, visibility, reset) open.⌉[ Editing the admin menu in place — the Posts item selected, with the shared controls panel (rename, icon, visibility, reset) open. [⌊The icon picker: searchable Dashicons and bundled Bootstrap Icons tabs for swapping a top-level admin menu icon.⌉⌊The icon picker: searchable Dashicons and bundled Bootstrap Icons tabs for swapping a top-level admin menu icon.⌉[ The icon picker: searchable Dashicons and bundled Bootstrap Icons tabs for swapping a top-level admin menu icon. [⌊Per-role visibility — hiding an admin menu item from selected roles (a cosmetic declutter, not access control).⌉⌊Per-role visibility — hiding an admin menu item from selected roles (a cosmetic declutter, not access control).⌉[ Per-role visibility — hiding an admin menu item from selected roles (a cosmetic declutter, not access control). [⌊A renamed admin menu item, saved automatically by debounced autosave.⌉⌊A renamed admin menu item, saved automatically by debounced autosave.⌉[ A renamed admin menu item, saved automatically by debounced autosave. ## Installation 1. In your dashboard go to **Plugins Add New**, search for “Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor”, and click **Install Now**, then **Activate**. 2. Or upload the plugin zip via **Plugins Add New Upload Plugin**, then activate it. 3. Or, manually: unzip into `wp-content/plugins/maestro-menu-editor` and activate from **Plugins**. 4. After activating, click **Edit Menu** in the admin bar to start editing the admin menu in place. ## FAQ ### Does hiding a menu item block access to that page? No — and this is important. Hiding an item is **cosmetic**: it removes the link from the admin menu but does not stop anyone from reaching the page by typing or bookmarking its URL. Real access is governed by each page’s registered capability. To actually block a page, use a capability manager such as [User Role Editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/user-role-editor/) or [PublishPress Capabilities](https://wordpress.org/plugins/capability-manager-enhanced/). ### Do my changes affect everyone, or just me? Everyone. Maestro stores one global configuration that applies to all users; it is not per-user. Per-role _visibility_ lets you hide items from specific roles, but the rename/reorder/icon changes themselves are global. ### Can I hide items from administrators too? Yes. Role visibility includes the administrator role, so you can declutter an admin’s menu — remembering that this is cosmetic, not a permission change. ### Does it work with custom roles from other plugins? Yes. Any role registered on the site — including custom roles from User Role Editor, Members, and similar plugins — appears automatically in the visibility control. ### Is the editor keyboard accessible? Yes. You can select, rename, reorder (`Alt`+`Arrow`), open the icon and visibility controls, and reset items without a mouse. Saves and moves are announced to screen readers. ### What happens when I deactivate or reset the plugin? The admin menu returns to exactly what WordPress and your active plugins generate. Your customizations live in a single option as a sparse delta; **Reset all** deletes that option, and deactivating the plugin stops it from being applied. ### Can I move an item between a top-level position and a submenu? Not yet. Reparenting is deliberately deferred (see “Known limits” below). Top-level items reorder among top-level items, and submenu items reorder within their current parent. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Dan Knauss ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpknauss/) [Translate “Maestro: The Inline Admin Menu Editor” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/maestro-menu-editor) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/maestro-menu-editor/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/maestro-menu-editor/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/maestro-menu-editor/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/maestro-menu-editor/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.1.0 * Keyboard reordering: select a menu item then press `Alt+ArrowUp` / Alt+ArrowDown to move it. Each move is announced to screen readers (politely for success, assertively when already at the boundary). No mouse required. * Modified indicator: changed items show a non-color glyph (•) with screen- reader text “(modified)” in edit mode. The indicator refreshes live on every rename, icon change, visibility change, and reset. * Discoverable per-item reset: the **Reset this item** button in the controls panel is now keyboard-reachable (Tab + Enter/Space) and is visually emphasised whenever the selected item has unsaved overrides. * Solid bundled icons: the Bootstrap Icons set now uses solid (`*-fill`) variants, so it mixes naturally with WordPress’s dashicons in the picker. * Edit-mode polish: clearer toolbar grouping, a more scannable icon grid, and a dismissible first-run hint. * Native save status: the saving / saved / error states now use WordPress dashicons( a spinner, a check, a warning) instead of emoji glyphs that some platforms recoloured or dropped; the idle state shows no icon. * Fixes: the saved status no longer renders a double check mark; the rename field no longer shifts as the title length changes; toolbar controls wrap instead of overlapping on narrow screens. * Listing: rewritten description and FAQ, plus a “Try it first” link to a live WordPress Playground demo. #### 1.0.0 * Initial release: rename, reorder, per-role visibility, reset. * Icons: accepts all four native WordPress forms (dashicon, none, base64 image data-URI, image URL); picker bundles dashicons + curated Bootstrap Icons with search, keyboard accessibility, and mobile-sized touch targets. * Editor: click-to-select with a shared panel, debounced single-flight autosave, and folded-mode neutralization. ## Meta * Version **1.1.0** * Last updated **2 hours ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.4 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.0** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Tags * [admin menu](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin-menu/)[admin menu editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin-menu-editor/) [hide menu items](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/hide-menu-items/)[menu editor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/menu-editor/) [menu icons](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/menu-icons/) * [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/maestro-menu-editor/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/maestro-menu-editor/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/maestro-menu-editor/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Dan Knauss ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dpknauss/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/maestro-menu-editor/) ## Donate Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin? [ Donate to this plugin ](https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/DanKnauss)