Ever wonder how to make those nifty drop-down menus you’ve seen on some Web sites? In a large Web site with many menu options, you can save a lot of screen real estate by collapsing the menu into categories. I’ve tested many JavaScript approaches and programs for drop-down menus over the past few years and haven’t found any I liked — until recently. AllWebMenus from Likno (www.likno.com) makes it easy to create drop-down menu navigation quickly and easily.
This DHTML/Javascript menu builder requires no DHTML or JavaScript know-how. And, it creates cross-browser, popup, or drop-down menus that work the same in all browsers supporting DHTML, meaning Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer versions of 4.0 and later.
You can download a trial version of the program for free. Experiment with the menu design and layout and check the preview to see how it will look. But if you want to add the menu to your Web site, you have to register the program. At $49.95, it’s worth every penny.
The level of customization is incredible! You can coordinate menu colors and graphics with your Web site. A style gallery is included in the program. You simply apply a style you like to your own menus. Or, if you prefer, use an existing style as a starting point, changing colors and fonts to work with your site. You can also download additional styles from the Likno Web site. And even more ideas can be obtained from the samples users have submitted to Likno. Since users can upload their designs, the samples are real-world solutions to site navigation challenges.
Getting started
When using this menu building tool, you start by setting global properties. Here you can choose between a vertical or horizontal menu presentation and where to place the menu on the screen. Simple enough. In my Web page design, I had hoped to place the menu in a table cell in order to have complete control over the menu’s position on the screen. But when I attempted to create my menu, I ran into a snag. When I e-mailed Likno to ask whether a menu could be placed in a table cell, the response from tech support was prompt. As it turned out, in the current version, the menu “floats” at coordinates you specify. That means you have to compile the menu, link it to your Web page (more about that later), and then preview in a browser to determine where you need to adjust the spacing. Since you can re-compile the menu at any time during the design process, this is not a problem.
Another feature, Main Menu properties, lets you choose colors (background, foreground, border, font) and other appearance specifications.
Next, you construct the menu items and any needed sub-menus. Again, border, background, foreground colors, and what happens when you mouse over the item can be specified individually. It is fun to experiment with different effects. Once you decide on the look you want, you can “pick style” and then apply the style to other menu items, thus saving time and making everything consistent. You specify URL and target frame in the mouse click event of the menu, as well as any JavaScript commands you might need.
Compile and link
To use your new menu on your Web page(s), you need to compile it and then link it to your page. The process is fully automated. After compiling, you are asked which pages you want to link the menu to. Simply navigate to the appropriate folder and choose the pages. Once completed, subsequent recompiles give you a choice between creating new or additional links or indicating that you have already linked to the pages and no longer need to do that step again.
Bottom line
This product does one thing really well. The ease of use and cross-platform capability of AllWebMenus plus its reasonable price make it well worth buying — even if you only have one Web site to build.
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