Getting Started with Steuard

Steuard can start with an editable sample menu, a menu you build yourself, or live menus from Toast POS. Whichever path you choose, you will finish by publishing a Menu post, choosing it on the Dashboard, and publishing the page draft Steuard prepares for you—no shortcode or Menu ID is required.

If Steuard is not installed yet, first review Installing Steuard and Checking Requirements.

After activating Steuard, open Steuard → Menu Options → Dashboard. The
Docs link in every Steuard admin header opens the complete documentation
collection. Links beside individual setup controls open the relevant article
directly in a new tab.

How menus work in Steuard #

Everything you display is a Menu post under Steuard → Menus. When you create one you choose its type, and the type is locked once the menu is saved:

• Toast — displays exactly one menu from a connected Toast location and stays in sync with it.
• Manual — sections and items you enter by hand.
• Composed — one menu assembled from sections and items on your Toast and Manual Menu posts.
• Combined — several Menu posts displayed stacked or as tabs.

Each Menu post owns its own layout, display rules, overrides, and design, so a menu looks the same wherever you place it. Pages simply pick a published Menu post—through the Steuard Menu block, the classic-editor meta box, or the [steuard_menu id="123"] shortcode.

Choose how to start #

On a new installation, the first checklist step offers three choices:

• Start with a sample menu gives you a complete Manual menu draft that you can edit and publish.
• Create a menu manually opens a blank Manual menu for your own sections and items.
• Configure Connection connects Steuard to Toast POS so you can create Toast Menu posts.

Choose the path that fits your restaurant, then use the common Publish your menu on a page steps below.

Path 1: Try a sample menu #

This is the quickest way to learn Steuard without POS credentials.

1. On the Dashboard checklist, click Start with a sample menu.
2. Steuard opens an editable draft named Sample Menu (edit me), already filled with sections, dishes, images, tags, and a Glass/Bottle size-priced item.
3. Change the title or edit any section or item. Expand an item's Details to add a description, image, calories, or tags. The preset tag buttons add common labels such as Vegan, Gluten-Free, and Spicy with one click.
4. Click Preview menu to inspect the current unsaved menu at desktop or narrow width.
5. Click Publish. Previewing does not save the draft, and draft menus do not appear in the Steuard Menu block, so this step is required.

Clicking Start with a sample menu again reopens the same sample rather than creating duplicates.

Path 2: Create a menu manually #

Use this path when you do not use Toast POS or need a menu that is not stored there.

1. On the Dashboard checklist, click Create a menu manually. You can also go to Steuard → Add New Menu and choose Manual.
2. Enter the menu name customers should see.
3. Add sections, then add items with their names and prices.
4. Expand Details when an item needs a description, size-based prices, calories, tags, or an image. Use a preset tag button or start typing to reuse a tag from another menu.
5. Click Preview menu and switch between Desktop and Narrow to check the current unsaved menu.
6. Close the preview, then click Publish. The preview itself does not save or publish the menu.

For a closer walkthrough of the type chooser, sections, items, and the Menu post's own Layout, Display, and Overrides tabs, see Creating a Menu. Price-by-size rows and display behavior are covered in Menu Prices, Sizes, and Currency; dietary and custom labels are covered in Menu Item Tags and Dietary Labels.

Path 3: Connect Toast POS #

Use this path when Toast is the source of truth for your live menus.

1. On the Dashboard checklist, click Configure Connection, or open Steuard → Menu Options → Connections.
2. Choose Toast POS as the Provider Type and enter a Connection Label you will recognize.
3. Enter the API hostname, client ID, and client secret supplied for your Toast integration.
4. Click Test Connection. Resolve any reported credential error before continuing.
5. Click Fetch Locations from API, confirm the restaurant locations Steuard found, and click Save Changes.
6. Saving new or changed credentials runs another live check. Confirm that the card says Connected, then check the separate Locations and Site-wide refresh rows.
7. Go to Steuard → Add New Menu, choose Toast, pick the upstream menu from the Toast menu dropdown (each entry is labeled "Location — Menu"), and click Publish. Repeat for each Toast menu you want on the site.

If you do not have the API hostname, Client ID, or Client Secret, use Where
do I find my Toast credentials? below the credential fields for the exact
Toast setup article.

If credentials are saved but no location has been added, the checklist keeps step 1 open and offers an Add Locations button.

A Toast Menu post always mirrors one upstream menu. Its sections and prices refresh on the schedule set under Menu Options → Advanced, and you can hide or rename things for the website without touching Toast from the post's Overrides tab.

Publish your menu on a page #

All three setup paths finish the same way:

1. Make sure the Menu post is published. Draft menus are not offered on the Dashboard or in the block.
2. In checklist step 2, choose the menu when more than one is available, then click Create menu page.
3. Steuard opens an unpublished page draft titled from the menu name. The Steuard Menu block is already inserted with that Menu post selected.
4. Review the page title and menu preview. Layout and display choices live on the Menu post itself, so open the menu under Steuard → Menus for any changes.
5. Click Publish only when the page is ready, then view it on your site.

Clicking Create menu page again for the same menu reopens the existing Steuard-created page without replacing your edits. If you trash that page, the next click creates a fresh draft. To place a menu on an existing page instead, add the Steuard Menu block there and select the Menu post.

Return to Steuard → Menu Options → Dashboard when you are done. The checklist shows View your menu page once Steuard finds a published page containing its menu block. For more placement options, see Adding Menus with the Block Editor.

To show two or more menus on one page—Lunch, Dinner, Drinks—create a Combined Menu post and place that instead. See Displaying Multiple Menus as Tabs.

Match Steuard to your site #

Open Steuard → Menu Options → Display → Appearance to choose a site-wide accent, review-star color, menu-tag colors, and typography. The live preview shows the selected palette in every layout, warns about low-contrast tag colors, and lets you reset to the original design. Theme fonts remain inherited by default, and each Menu post can override any of these values for itself.

See Customizing Menu and Review Appearance for the complete walkthrough and developer CSS properties.

How the setup checklist works #

Each step tracks your progress, drafts included:

1. Connect Toast POS or create a menu is complete when Steuard has a configured POS connection with a location, or at least one Manual menu — draft or published. Starting the sample menu counts immediately.
2. Add the Steuard Menu block to a page is complete when any post or page — draft or published — contains the Steuard Menu block, a menu shortcode, or a saved classic-editor meta box selection. Clicking Create menu page counts immediately.
3. Publish and view your page completes only when that page is published. While the page is still a draft, this step shows a Review and publish your page button that takes you straight to it.

Draft menus still need publishing before they appear in the block, the meta box, or on your site — the checklist reminds you where publishing is still due. If you have just published something, reload the Dashboard to refresh the checklist.

Advanced: refresh timing, cache bar, and Demo Mode #

Most customers can leave Steuard → Menu Options → Advanced at its defaults.

• Refresh Frequency controls how long fetched menu data can remain cached. Choose Hourly, Every 6 hours, Twice daily, or Daily. Steuard also refreshes menus twice daily in the background, and the Clear Menu Cache button at the top of the Connections tab forces an immediate refresh.
• Front-End Cache Bar shows logged-in staff a small bar above each live menu with a Clear menu cache button and the last-cached time, so a Toast change can be pulled in without leaving the page. After a clear it says whether the menu refreshed, and while the Toast connection is failing it shows the reason with a link to fix it. Use Cache Bar Roles to choose which roles see it; administrators always do, and visitors never receive the bar's markup.
• Demo Mode uses bundled sample data instead of live API data throughout Steuard. It is useful for testing layouts, but it temporarily replaces your live Toast menus while enabled. Turn it off before checking live data.

Demo Mode is different from Start with a sample menu: Demo Mode supplies temporary, read-only data, while the checklist button creates a normal editable menu draft that becomes available after you publish it.

The Advanced tab also holds two ownership controls:

• Usage Sharing — opt in or out of usage data at any time. The description lists exactly what a report includes; see What data does Steuard store and send?.
• Uninstall — off by default, deleting the plugin keeps your Menu posts and menu tags. Check the box only if you want a delete to remove all Steuard data. See What do deactivating and deleting Steuard remove?.

To display Google reviews after your first menu is live, continue with Displaying Google Reviews.