Header, menus and footer
Chapter 3 of the Hooray user guide.
The announcement bar and header sit in the Header group at the top of the editor's section list; the footer is in the Footer group at the bottom. They show on every page.
Announcement bar
The strip across the top of every page, on the deep band. It holds up to four blocks:
- Announcement: Text ("Order by 2 pm for same-day pickup · Free shipping over $100") and Link. A " · " inside the text splits it into separate messages with a small dot between them. With more than one message they take turns every 6 seconds (on phones one message at a time, so the line never wraps), with a small pause button. Hovering holds the current one. Put your most important message first.
- Countdown (one per bar): a live countdown. Label ("Sale ends in"), End date (format 2026-11-27), End time (24-hour, default 23:59), Time zone (Store time zone, or a UTC offset), Link, and After the deadline: Hide the countdown (default) or Show a message (Message after the deadline, "This sale has ended").
Use a real deadline that is the same for every shopper. Shopify doesn't allow fake countdowns, so don't extend or restart a deadline to create urgency.
Header
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Main menu | The header's menu |
| Menu style | Mega menu | Mega menu shows a top-level link's child links as columns when they have links of their own. Other top-level links keep a dropdown. Dropdown uses dropdowns throughout. |
| Open menus on hover | On | For shoppers using a mouse. Menus always open on click, tap and keyboard. |
| Show search | On | A search button, with suggestions as shoppers type. Search placeholder: "Search balloons, tableware and occasions". |
| Sticky header | Always | None, Always (keeps the header at the top of the screen) or On scroll up (hides it while shoppers scroll down and shows it again when they scroll up) |
From 990px wide the header is one row: the wordmark (or logo), your menu, then search, account and the cart with its count. A long shop name takes two lines before anything else gives way. If the menu still doesn't fit, links fold from the end into a More item.
Under 990px the header is the menu button, the wordmark, then search and the cart. The menu, the account link and the country and language selectors move into the menu drawer. When you've chosen a Delivery zones page in Theme settings › Event date and delivery, the drawer also shows a Delivery zones card ("See where we deliver and set up.") linking to it.
Menu promo blocks (up to six) add a small promo to the end of a mega menu panel, and a thumbnail row in the menu drawer: an Image cut as a balloon, a Heading ("Party in a box"), a Link and its Link label ("Build yours"). Set Menu item to the exact title of the top-level link it belongs to, such as Occasions. Each link shows up to two promos, in block order, and promos only appear on links that open a mega panel. A promo with no heading doesn't show. In the theme editor, a promo that can't find its link or is over the limit shows a note.
The account panel's menu is set in Theme settings › Customer accounts.
Building your menus
Make menus in admin under Content › Menus. A mega panel needs three levels: a top-level link (Occasions), child links that head each column (Birthday, Baby shower), and links under those (First birthday, 18th, 21st). With only two levels a link keeps a dropdown. The presets' footers use your Main menu for the Shop column and your Footer menu for the Help column.
Good links for a party shop are your occasion collections, your number balloon collection, the page with your Party in a box section, a garland kit, your page.enquiry installations page and your page.delivery page. Shopify's filter links work too: with the Occasion filter set up, /collections/all?filter.p.m.custom.occasions=Birthday opens everything for birthdays (chapter 14).
Footer
The footer sits on the deep band.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show the shop name and about text | On | Your shop name and About text ("Balloons, tableware and garlands from a corner shop in Marrickville, Sydney. Open Tuesday to Sunday.") |
| Text after the copyright | Shown after the copyright line, such as an ABN or a short note | |
| Show country and language selectors | On | Set up markets and languages in Shopify admin (chapter 15) |
| Show policy links | On | Links to the policies in Settings › Policies |
| Show payment icons | On | The icons for your payment methods |
| Show "Powered by Shopify" | Off |
Add these blocks to fill the columns:
- Menu column: Heading ("Shop") and Menu (Footer menu by default).
- Text column: Heading ("Visit") and Text. Good for your address and opening hours.
- Newsletter: Heading ("Subscribe"), Text ("Tell subscribers what they'll receive."), and Show Follow on Shop (on), which lets customers follow your store in the Shop app.
- Social media: Heading ("Follow"). Add the links in Theme settings › Social media.
The general blocks in chapter 5 work in the footer too.