Title: active navigtion
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# active navigtion

 *  Resolved [marisaharwood](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marisaharwood/)
 * (@marisaharwood)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/active-navigtion/)
 * Hi,
 * I have created my navigation which works fine. I would like to apply an active
   state to the list item depending on what category you are on. I know how to do
   this in css and html, but I’m new to php and I’m struggling a bit.
 * Please help :O)
 *     ```
       <ul id="nav">
   
                        <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'pensions' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 3 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-pensions"><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="pensions"><span>pension</span></a></li>
   
                        <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'money' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 4 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-money"><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="everyday money"><span>everyday money</span></a></li>
   
                        <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'mortgages' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 5 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-mortgages"><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="mortgages"><span>mortgages</span></a></li>
   
                        <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'savings' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 6 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-savings"><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="saving and investments"><span>savings and investments</span></a></li>
   
                        <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'protection' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 7 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-protections"><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="protection"><span>protections</span></a></li>
   
                      </ul>
       ```
   

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/active-navigtion/#post-1733533)
 * Try using [wp_list_categories](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_list_categories)
   for your nav menu. Then you can make use of the classes that it generates – including
   a .current-category class.
 *  [Michael](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alchymyth/)
 * (@alchymyth)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/active-navigtion/#post-1733538)
 * if you need to do it manually, check the conditional template tag `is_category()`
   
   [http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/is_category](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/is_category)
 * for example:
 *     ```
       <?php $category_id = get_cat_ID( 'pensions' ); $category_link = get_category_link( 3 );?>
   
                        <li id="nav-pensions"<?php if(is_category('pensions')) echo ' class="current-cat"'; ?>><a href="<?php echo $category_link; ?>" title="pensions"><span>pension</span></a></li>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [marisaharwood](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marisaharwood/)
 * (@marisaharwood)
 * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/active-navigtion/#post-1733676)
 * Thanks – this works a treat.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘active navigtion’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [navigation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/navigation/)

 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [marisaharwood](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marisaharwood/)
 * Last activity: [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/active-navigtion/#post-1733676)
 * Status: resolved

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