Breadcrumb / Sitemap

What is a breadcrumb or sitemap?

The breadcrumb or sitemap component shows a navigation trail: the path from the top-level page down to the page the reader is viewing. Each step matches pages in your publication’s hierarchical structure (main pages and subpages) and can be clicked to navigate to that page.

When to use a breadcrumb?

The component is most useful when your publication has several levels (pages with subpages). If the reader is on a page at the "root" level, the trail will be short.

What do readers get from it?

  • Orientation – Visitors see at a glance where they are in the publication, especially when you use multiple levels of subpages.
  • Quick way back – Earlier steps in the trail are clickable and take readers to a parent page without hunting through the main navigation.
  • A familiar pattern – Breadcrumbs are a common web convention, which makes nested content easier to explore.

How to use the breadcrumb / sitemap component

The breadcrumb is built automatically from your page structure and you do not configure the path by hand.

  1. Add the component

In the editor, drag the breadcrumb / sitemap component on to the canvas where you want it to appear. Take into account extra space if you have many nested pages.

  1. Styling

Use the style options to adjust, among other things:

  • Container – background, border, corner radius, padding
  • Item – typography for clickable earlier steps
  • Active item – typography for the current page (last step, not clickable)
  • Separator – the character or styling between steps
  1. Separator

By default there is a text separator (e.g. ›), though it can be altered to any character or left empty.

Optionally you can upload an SVG icon to use as the separator instead of text.

  1. Spacing

Use Gap to set the space between breadcrumb segments.

  1. Published output

The real breadcrumb appears in the published publication. In the editor and editor preview you typically see a placeholder (e.g. “Page › Subpage”), as noted in the component settings. That is expected.


Updated on: 02/04/2026