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Menu

The menu shows food and drinks at a glance – including dietary notes. Your guests see what’s coming, you save yourself the questions, and your caterer ends up with a clean order list.

Structure: courses and dishes

Section titled “Structure: courses and dishes”

The menu has two levels: you create courses (starter, main course, dessert, drinks), and each course holds the individual dishes.

Menu editor showing the Dessert course with the dishes Tiramisu, Panna cotta and Chocolate cake
One course in the editor, Dessert here: ① Course name and Description (optional), ② the arrows move the whole course, the bin deletes it along with its dishes, ③ a dish row – thumbnail, name, the Price per portion field, its own arrows, the pencil to edit and the bin, ④ Add dish creates a dish inside exactly this course, ⑤ Add course adds another section, ⑥ Save – pale while there is nothing to save. The Live preview runs along below.

  1. Add course creates a new section. It has a Course name and an optional Description (optional) – for example choice of meat or vegetarian.

  2. Add dish opens the dish dialog inside that course (see below).

  3. The arrows on the right move courses and dishes up and down individually. Your guests see exactly this order.

  4. Price per portion on the right of each dish row is for you only – your guests never see a price. The value feeds the budget: positions with the per menu selection driver use the price of the dish a guest picked, and the course average for everyone who has not picked yet. Leave the field empty and the budget reports The menu is missing prices.

  5. Save applies everything.

The Content tab keeps a running count in the top right – 3/30 courses · 9/300 dishes in the example on this page. The ceilings are 30 courses and 300 dishes; once they are reached, the add buttons stop responding.

Creating a dish

Section titled “Creating a dish”

The Add dish dialog (or Edit dish for an existing one) has four fields:

  • Dish name – the only required field, e.g. Beef fillet with rosemary potatoes.
  • Description (optional) – a sentence or two about the dish.
  • Notes (e.g. vegan, gluten-free) – short dietary and allergy notes as chips. Type the note and confirm it with Enter, a comma or the Add button. Typical chips are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, lactose-free or spicy. Up to 20 notes per dish; duplicates are not added twice.
  • Image (optional) – a photo of the dish. Clicking the field opens the file picker; dragging a file onto it works too. Landscape and a well-lit, appetizing shot work best. Once an image sits there, the red ✕ in the top left removes it and the arrow in the bottom right shows it full size.

Apply puts the dish into the course. It is only stored once you press the editor’s Save button.

Edit dish dialog with language choice, name, description, the vegetarian chip and a photo in the image field
The dialog top to bottom: ① the translation language – the text belongs to the language selected here, and Update All carries it over into all the others. ② The required Dish name field (“Burrata with tomatoes” here) with the Description (optional) below it. ③ Notes with the finished vegetarian chip, the input field and Add – the ? next to it explains them. ④ Image (optional), here with an uploaded photo. ⑤ Apply closes the dialog; it is only stored once you press Save in the editor.

Design for your guests

Section titled “Design for your guests”

In the Content tab, Design decides how the menu looks for your guests. The Live preview right under the editor shows the effect immediately:

  • Elegant – courses with a divider, dishes as a list. This is the default.
  • Cards – dishes as tiles with images.
  • Compact – a space-saving text list.
Head of the Content tab with the counter, the three design tiles, the language picker and the export buttons
The head of the Content tab, above the first course: ① the counter `3/30 courses · 9/300 dishes`, ② the three designs – Cards is selected here, marked by the tick in the top right of the tile, ③ the translation language for every text in the menu, ④ Export PDF… for the printed card, ⑤ Design in the Design Studio for the free-form template, ⑥ the event date the card prints – Change takes you to the event settings.

The Display tab decides where the menu shows up: Widget on the home page (the widget links to the full page via See the full menu) and Entry in the guest menu. Once Widget on the home page is on, the Widget style appears below it.

Display tab of the menu tool with the Active switch, Entry in the guest menu and Widget on the home page
① Active at the very top is the master switch – with it off, your guests see the menu nowhere. ② Entry in the guest menu puts the tile into the Event info & tools row. ③ Widget on the home page shows the content directly on the event home page as well – off here; switch it on and the Widget style appears below it. ④ Open menu editor jumps back to the Content tab, ⑤ Open appearance to the colours and fonts of the whole event. These three switches take effect immediately – there is no Save here.

What your guests see

Section titled “What your guests see”
The menu on the guest page: the tile in the tools row, the Starter course and the first dish card
① The Menu tile in the Event info & tools row – it sits there because Entry in the guest menu is on. Tapping it opens the menu page with ② the first course, Starter, and ③ the first dish card, in the Cards design here.
Close-up of a dish card with photo, magnifier and the vegetarian note chip
One card up close: ① photo, name and description, ② the magnifier opens the photo full size, ③ the note chip vegetarian from the Notes field. Dishes without a photo show up as a plain text card instead – the image really is optional.

A QR code for the menu

Section titled “A QR code for the menu”

The third tab, QR code, provides the direct link for guests: whoever scans the code lands on the menu page right away, without signing in – handy for a small stand on the table.

QR code tab of the menu tool with the QR code, the direct link and the buttons Copy link, Design in the Design Studio, Export PDF, QR as PNG and QR as SVG
The QR code tab: ① the code itself, ② Copy link puts the address on the clipboard, ③ that very address – it ends in /tools/menu, ④ Design in the Design Studio opens a poster carrying the code as a free-form template, ⑤ the three downloads: Export PDF (a finished poster), QR as PNG and QR as SVG (the code alone).
  • Copy link puts the address on the clipboard.
  • Design in the Design Studio opens a poster carrying the code as a freely editable template.
  • Export PDF downloads a ready-made scan-me poster. Do not confuse it with the menu card as PDF in the next section – that one prints the dishes, this poster only the code.
  • QR as PNG and QR as SVG save the code itself, for instance to place it in your own printed material.
Section titled “Menu card as PDF”

The menu isn’t only digital. In the Menu card as PDF section, Export PDF… opens the Export menu card as PDF dialog – with a live preview of the finished card next to the settings.

Export menu card as PDF dialog with the settings on the left and the live preview on the right
On the left you set what gets printed: ① Title on the card, prefilled with the event name, ② Style & format – Gold & Ivory in A4 here, ③ the seven checkboxes under Content; Dish photos can be clicked because dishes in this example do have an image. ④ On the right the live preview rebuilds after every change – in this capture it is still empty. ⑤ Download PDF saves the file; the next image shows what it looks like.

Title on the card is prefilled with the event name and can be overwritten freely.

Style & format offers four styles:

  • Gold & Ivory – ivory paper with antique gold and a script title. The default.
  • Classic Black & White – timeless, clean typography without colour.
  • Romantic Blush – soft blush with playful script course names.
  • Midnight Blue – deep blue with gold ink, an evening gala look.

Next to it you pick the Paper size: A4 or A5.

Under Content you switch on individually what gets printed:

  • Dish photos
  • Course descriptions
  • Dish descriptions
  • Dietary tags (vegan, gluten-free, …)
  • “Menu” word below the title
  • Decorative frame
  • Ornamental dividers

Download PDF saves the finished file.

The finished menu card as a PDF in the Gold & Ivory style with the courses Starter, Main course and Dessert
The same nine dishes as a finished PDF: Gold & Ivory in A4, with the decorative frame, the word MENU below the title, ornamental dividers between the courses and the dietary tags in small caps under the dish – VEGETARIAN for the burrata and the porcini risotto here. Dish photos was off for this card; with photos on, every dish gets a round image and the same three courses need two pages.

Designing it in the Design Studio

Section titled “Designing it in the Design Studio”

If the ready-made styles aren’t enough, Design in the Design Studio opens the menu card as a freely editable template – in A5 by default. There you set the background, fonts, images and QR codes yourself; everything else is on the Design Studio page.

The special part: your real menu can be inserted as a text block. In the panel for adding elements, Insert content offers three granularities:

  • The whole menu – every course with its dishes in one block. If the text doesn’t fit on one page, it flows onto further pages automatically.
  • Per course – one block per course, freely placeable.
  • Per dish – one block per dish, for layouts where every dish gets its own spot.

If dishes carry photos, an insert for the dish images appears as well and places the existing photos as image blocks.

The menu card also prints the event date. If none is set yet, the editor says so right next to the export buttons and links into the event settings.

A personal menu for guests

Section titled “A personal menu for guests”

If a guest’s session is linked to an entry in the guest list – via a personalized link or a scanned place card – and that guest has a menu selection on file, the menu page shows only their dishes.

  • A banner says so: You are seeing your personal menu.
  • Show all dishes takes the guest back to the full card at any time, Show only my menu switches back.
  • Courses without a selection (a buffet course, say) stay complete.

More on this in Why do I only see my own menu?.

Working together with RSVP, guest list and seating

Section titled “Working together with RSVP, guest list and seating”

The menu is the source for everything food-related:

  • RSVP: switch on Ask for menu choices there and the reply form pulls the courses straight from this tool. Every companion picks their own dish.
  • Guest list: the choice lands per guest in the Menu column and can be filled in by hand there too.
  • Seating export: the Service plan (waiting staff) prints per table who ordered what, plus Kitchen totals (all guests).

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
  • There’s nothing to choose in RSVP. The menu tool has no course with dishes yet, or the menu wasn’t saved. Create courses and dishes, save, then check again.
  • My changes are gone. The editor does not autosave. Unsaved work is flagged with Unsaved changes next to the Save button.
  • Export PDF… can’t be clicked. No course has been created yet.
  • The Dish photos switch is grey. Not a single dish has an image. Add at least one in the dish dialog.
  • The Design Studio still shows the old menu text. Click Update all at the top; inserted blocks do not follow changes on their own.
  • A guest only sees one dish per course. That’s the personal menu. Show all dishes brings back the full card.
  • The menu doesn’t show up for guests. Check the Active switch at the very top and, in the Display tab, the Widget on the home page and Entry in the guest menu switches.
Section titled “Related pages”