Adding categories and not seeing them in the navigation menu in the front-end is a common problem for people just starting out in Magento. Usually it’s pretty easily fixed by checking the following 2 things:

1. Is the “is active” option set to “yes” in the “general” tab?
2. Is the “include in navigation menu” option set to “yes” in the “general” tab?

Is category active / include in navigation

When these are checked and the category still does not show in the top menu, there are two additional things to check:

1. Is the category that you have edited placed in the right position in the category tree? Every store in Magento has a root category which does not show in the front-end butserves as an attachment point for all subcategories for a given store. Subcategories for a store should be nested below that root category.
2. Finally, if your category still does not show, the reason is most likely customizations. Turn off all custom code and set the store’s template to the default template, then check again.

If your categories still do not show after these steps something is seriously amiss! Leave a comment and maybe we can help you.