Joomla categories - how to organize them and how to do Menus -

the site on j2.5 building have many categories... lets take cooking analogy....

for organized this:

main dishes 1

-dish1

-dish2

-dish3

---dish3 sub1

---dish3 sub2

---dish3 sub3

---dish3 sub4

-dish4

• ....

i have 7-8 main dishes each of them having approx. 40 dishes, , each of approx. 5 subdishes... categories, have populated articles...

first question, there way simplify organization? maybe not have main dishes @ all, big nuber of dishes subcategories...

secondly, how organize menus? having menu 200 dishes seems non-ergonomical... maybe make alphabetical subgroups (like a-d, e-h, i-m, etc.?)

third, submenu od subdishes appear on sepparate template position, when dish navigated to... if understand saying... main menu having main dish - dish, , then, on left appears sub1, sub2, sub3 when navigate dish. have create new menu every dish or can menu somehow dynamicaly populated subdishes, based on category selected?

i think now... based on respected answers, might have few additional questions.

thanks

edit: crossed mind, maybe 1 category , tag-based menus, if exists component...

firstly recommend use joomla3 , not joomla2.5. main joomla3 advantage responsive default templates. these not bad , works great on desktops , mobile phones. template using in joomla 2.5? custom one, created or using default 1 joomla installation package?

probably main issue categories article (dish) can have 1 category. think hassling 1 day dish - in category put in? remember, allowed select 1 category.

with tags can solve problem. dish have number of tags. suggest use tags instead of categories. quite sure find descent extension manage tags in joomla2.5, tags built-in joomla3. in joomla3 there component called tags. in component can create sub-tags (parent , child tags), think totally fit you.

about menu items. don't have create menu item each dish. organise dishes (articles) categories (tags) , create links categories (tags). example have category (tag) called soups. create link soups category (tag) , in link there shown dishes (articles) in soups. visitor able press on each of them , dish article more information. when creating link menu item called category blog list or category list. in joomla3 can create menu item displays compact list of tagged items.

so hope gave wide view of possibilities, think best approach use tags component in joomla3. create menu items called compact list of tagged items. , use tags module show tags listed somewhere , don't categorise articles much. maybe few categories own comfort.

if really care seo (search engine optimization), should create menu item each dish. because of sef (search engine friendly) links created each menu item. if article doesn't have link there used generic joomla link it.