Creating a Composed Menu

A composed menu is built from pieces of your other menus. Instead of copying items, it links to them — whole sections or individual dishes — so names, prices, and descriptions always match the source. Typical uses: one brunch menu assembled from several locations' brunch sections, a "Chef's Favorites" highlight reel, or a catering page that borrows from the dinner and dessert menus.

Anything you can see in Steuard can be linked: sections and items on your Toast and Manual Menu posts, and sections directly from a connected Toast location (see Creating a Menu).

Starting a composed menu #

Go to Steuard → Add New Menu and choose Composed in the type chooser.

1. The Composed type opens the composed editor. The type is locked once the menu is saved.
2. The Type column on the Menus list tells Toast, Manual, Composed, and Combined menus apart — all live on the same screen.

The composed editor #

The editor assembles sections. There are two kinds:

• A linked section mirrors an entire section from another menu. Its name, description, and items come live from the source — add a dish to the source section and it appears here automatically.
• A custom section has its own name and description, and holds individual items you pick from any menu. Give one a description and no items and it shows as a text block — useful for a callout or note at the top of the menu.

1. Name the menu — this is the heading diners see.
2. + Add Linked Section opens the picker to link whole sections from other menus.
3. + Add Custom Section adds a section you name yourself, then fill with picked items.
4. Every linked section and picked item shows where it comes from — for example "From: Manual Menus / Weekend Brunch".
5. + Add Items inside a custom section opens the picker in single-item mode.
6. Preview menu shows the composed result, including unsaved changes, without publishing anything.
7. Click Publish (or Update) to save. After publishing, the shortcode hint shows the menu's ID ready to copy — for example [steuard_menu id="45"].

Drag the handles to reorder sections, and items within a custom section. Items inside a linked section keep the source menu's order.

Picking sections and items #

The picker browses everything Steuard knows about — every location, menu, and section — with a search box that filters across all of it.

1. Type to search menu, section, and item names.
2. Tick the sections (or items) you want. Entries already on this composed menu are grayed out.
3. Add selected adds everything you ticked and closes the picker.

Composed menus can't be picked into other composed menus — the picker only offers original sources. If you want a hand-typed item on a composed menu, add it to a regular menu first and pick it from there.

Displaying a composed menu #

A published Composed menu behaves exactly like any other Menu post: choose it in the Steuard Menu block or classic meta box, include it in a Combined menu for tabs, or place it with its shortcode:

[steuard_menu id="45"]

Like every Menu post, it carries its own Layout, Display, and Overrides settings in the box below the editor.

Staying in sync #

• Edit a price, name, or description on the source menu and every composed menu linking to it updates automatically — there is nothing to re-save.
• If a linked section or item disappears from its source (deleted, unpublished, or removed from your POS), the composed menu simply skips it on the page — diners never see an error. The editor flags the entry with a warning so you can re-link or remove it; it isn't removed automatically, so if the source comes back the link heals itself.
• Overrides (hidden items, renamed sections, section columns) set on a Composed menu affect only that Composed menu — never the source.