Want Menu just like the one on this website

L

Linda T53

Hi,
I need to make a drop down or cascading menu just like the one under the
"Office Discussion Groups" menu at this location.
I found a couple online scripts.... 1. Coolmenus, 2. EZMenu... that look
like they may do what I want.
What I need to know is, once I figure out how to modify the script to the
colors and the text I need, how do I position it in a particular spot in my
Dynamic Web Template?
I need to position it in a cell on the left of a table, and have no idea how
to tell it where it is supposed to be on the page.

Thank you for any help.
 
S

Steve Easton

In FrontPage 2003 check help for Behaviors and DHTML

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed............
........................with a computer
 
L

Linda T53

I have not been able to find anything in the Help file regarding the
Behaviors and DHTML, nor in the 1000+ page frontpage 2003 manual I have that
"specifically" tells me how to place the script I want to use, in the spot I
need to put it. I know that I can build my own limited scripts using the
behaviors formatting menu (ie.. jump menu..) and wherever the cursor is, or
the item you have highlighted is where the event will occur on the page....,
but that does me no good if I have a script from another source but do not
know how to get it to show up in the spot I need it to in the code itself, so
it shows up on the web page where I need it to.
If that information is actually covered in the Help file, then I need to
know what topic and what subcategory it is actually located in because I can
not find it. :( (not questioning your answer, its just that I can't find
it).

Thank you
 
L

Linda T53

I finally found what I was looking for in the manual. What you need to build
the menus that roll out as your mouse rolls over it....... it is called
Layers.... I found it by sitting there and turning each page of the manual
until I happened to hit a page that had a hint box that mentioned menus in
it. Frontpage would be so much better if it had a better index... it would
reduce the frustration 100%.
 
J

Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)

Linda said:
I finally found what I was looking for in the manual. What you need
to build the menus that roll out as your mouse rolls over it.......
it is called Layers.... I found it by sitting there and turning each
page of the manual until I happened to hit a page that had a hint box
that mentioned menus in it. Frontpage would be so much better if it
had a better index... it would reduce the frustration 100%.
Click to expand...

If reducing frustration is your goal, immediately abandon using layers and
Behaviors and buy DHTML Menu Builder! See a review and link on my Web site
in the Review Corner section.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO

If you use FrontPage, you need our add-ins!
http://www.jimcoaddins.com
=======================================

Come take our Flash survey!

=======================================
Coming soon!
JIMCO Close Window
Sign up to our mailing list for information.
 
T

Tina Clarke

Linda T53 said:
Hi,
I need to make a drop down or cascading menu just like the one under the
"Office Discussion Groups" menu at this location.
I found a couple online scripts.... 1. Coolmenus, 2. EZMenu... that look
like they may do what I want.
What I need to know is, once I figure out how to modify the script to the
colors and the text I need, how do I position it in a particular spot in my
Dynamic Web Template?
I need to position it in a cell on the left of a table, and have no idea how
to tell it where it is supposed to be on the page.

Thank you for any help.
Click to expand...

http://www.interlacken.com/winnt/tips/tipshow.aspx?tip=28

This any help?

Tina

Tip now out is: Comment Tags - The Good And The Bad
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - FrontPage Tips
They are primarily for FrontPage 2003 but will be good
for earlier versions too.
 
L

Linda T53

If reducing frustration is your goal, immediately abandon using layers and
Behaviors and buy DHTML Menu Builder! See a review and link on my Web site
in the Review Corner section.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO

If you use FrontPage, you need our add-ins!
http://www.jimcoaddins.com
=======================================
Click to expand...
Jim, your manual is the one that I have. While the book is very helpful and
I am learning tons of new stuff from it... the index really needs beefing up
for the new or inexperienced user to FrontPage...I spent hours trying to find
what I needed for the drop down Menu... Because of my inexperience with the
terminology it took awhile for me to make the connection that the Menu is
built from a series of buttons. And the interactive buttons were created by
Layers.... Maybe for the next one you could put in "crossreference"
information in the index... like "Interactive Menu" or "Drop Down Menu": see
Buttons... For all of those kinds of things that someone new to the
experience might be trying to figure out.
Really it is a great manual, and I recommend it to anyone needing guidance.
:)
 
J

Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)

Linda said:
Jim, your manual is the one that I have. While the book is very
helpful and I am learning tons of new stuff from it... the index
really needs beefing up for the new or inexperienced user to
FrontPage...I spent hours trying to find what I needed for the drop
down Menu... Because of my inexperience with the terminology it took
awhile for me to make the connection that the Menu is built from a
series of buttons. And the interactive buttons were created by
Layers.... Maybe for the next one you could put in "crossreference"
information in the index... like "Interactive Menu" or "Drop Down
Menu": see Buttons... For all of those kinds of things that someone
new to the experience might be trying to figure out.
Really it is a great manual, and I recommend it to anyone needing
guidance. :)
Click to expand...


Thanks for that feedback, Linda. The index is actually created
automagically by the publisher. Paul and I wrote the Table of Contents, and
I'm pretty sure that my chapter on Layers has a Front and Center on creating
menus that is appropriately named. Chapter 25 maybe? Don't have the book
right in front of me.

FrontPage can certainly create menus like this with Behaviors, but it's not
a trivial task to make it work right. I wish I had had more room to write
on this issue in the book, but I didn't.

I really prefer to use the right tool for the right job, and in my opinion,
you can't beat DHTML Menu Builder. I use it on every site I create. It's
an excellent tool!

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO

If you use FrontPage, you need our add-ins!
http://www.jimcoaddins.com
=======================================

Come take our Flash survey!

=======================================
Coming soon!
JIMCO Close Window
Sign up to our mailing list for information.
 
J

Jon Spivey

Jim,
There's a lot of issues with this product - worst of all it writes links
with javascript so you're not going to be indexed by the search engines. For
most web sites not getting their pages indexed would be a showstopper.

Creating menus with FP layers can be a little tedious but for maybe 30
minutes work you'll come out with a robust cross browser (all the way down
to NN4) menu that will be indexed. I've also written a behavior that will do
the job even quicker.
 
J

Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)

Jon said:
Jim,
There's a lot of issues with this product - worst of all it writes
links with javascript so you're not going to be indexed by the search
engines. For most web sites not getting their pages indexed would be
a showstopper.
Creating menus with FP layers can be a little tedious but for maybe 30
minutes work you'll come out with a robust cross browser (all the way
down to NN4) menu that will be indexed. I've also written a behavior
that will do the job even quicker.
Click to expand...

Jon,

Whatever happened to the "don't blame the tool" mantra? :)

There are two ways you can address JavaScript links in DHTML Menu Builder.
First, you can create a text link bar in addition to your menus. This is
the recommended method, but I am always too lazy to do it, so I choose
option 2. Option 2 is to let DHTML Menu Builder generate an HTML site map
using your menu and then link to that site map from your home page.

If you check my search engine ranking, I think you'll have a hard time
making the argument that I am not getting indexed. :)

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO

If you use FrontPage, you need our add-ins!
http://www.jimcoaddins.com
=======================================

Come take our Flash survey!

=======================================
Coming soon!
JIMCO Close Window
Sign up to our mailing list for information.
 
L

Linda T53

Tina Clarke said:
http://www.interlacken.com/winnt/tips/tipshow.aspx?tip=28

This any help?

Tina
Click to expand...
Tina, I went to the link you gave and printed out the instructions there. I
did it step by step, twice... they seem to be a variation on the steps given
in Jim's book. Unfortunately, for some reason, the main menu line works,
shows up at least... The secondary level of the menu does not appear when the
main menu is mouseovered.
I put it up online, to test it, since I could not get it to do anything in
frontpage. Any hyperlink that I have assigned in the main menu works, but
nothing happens for the buttons that are linked to "javascript:;"...... so I
must be missing a step
This same thing happened when I used the instructions from the manual that
Jim created.

Can someone look at the script and tell me what is missing? I swear I have
followed this step by step from a blank page each time I have re-tried it.
Here are the 2 pages I uploaded...
The first test page is doing it by trying to put it inside a table since I
will be eventually putting this on a Dynamic Template. I did exactly
verbatim everything that was instructed on this one (so it is very sloppy
looking with the table outlines all over the place, and ignore the missing
graphic)

http://www.corsetsandcostumes.com/TestPage1.htm

The second test was done verbatim with the exception of me resizing the menu
table a bit and no visible borders for the main menu.

http://www.corsetsandcostumes.com/TestPage2.htm

When I look at the script that I get from the process, it doesn't look like
the main menu level is connected to the secondary level. (in my script the
menus assigned with the "show" visibility is seperate from the submenus with
the "hide" visibility)...It does not look like the example given in the
instructions... So I am missing something someplace... just do not know what
it is.

Help please...
 
J

Jon Spivey

That's fair enough but why not just build the menus right in the first
place, then you don't need text link bars or site maps you just have a link
which shows a little hand when you mouseover it that anyone - search engine,
disabled user, non-js user etc, can follow. Isn't that an easier way to be
lazy :)
 
L

Linda T53

By sorting through all recent posts about menus and the issues I have been
struggling with the past 2 days.... I found the link you provided to the
behaviors routine you created... It worked... I even uploaded the page to a
site and it properly linked to everything it was supposed to.
Now all I have to do is make it pretty. I am sure I will have more
questions as I play around with it...

THANK YOU JON SPIVEY.... You rock.. (even though you lost your domain name)
Sincerely thankful
Linda
 
J

Jim Cheshire \(JIMCO\)

Jon said:
That's fair enough but why not just build the menus right in the first
place, then you don't need text link bars or site maps you just have
a link which shows a little hand when you mouseover it that anyone -
search engine, disabled user, non-js user etc, can follow. Isn't that
an easier way to be lazy :)
Click to expand...

I sure wouldn't say that creating menus using DHTML is the "wrong" way! As
with anything in Web design, you need to understand what you're doing and
take the necessary steps. In this case, what that means is that if you are
going to rely on DHTML menus, you need to provide some alternate method of
navigation for those who don't have scripting enabled. I know I'm spouting
off about something you already know well. :)

I've always found that I can create much more professional menus if I use
the right tool for the job. I just don't think that FrontPage Behaviors and
layers are the right tool for the job.

Besides, DHTML Menu Builder ships a very cool Developer's Edition. You're a
client-script junkie. You should check it out. It's extremely cool.

--
Jim Cheshire
JIMCO

If you use FrontPage, you need our add-ins!
http://www.jimcoaddins.com
=======================================

Come take our Flash survey!

=======================================
Coming soon!
JIMCO Close Window
Sign up to our mailing list for information.
 
L

Linda T53

Thanks Ron,

I printed off the code for the example page, and compared it to mine. Here
is what I found. The syntax is essentially the same except mine is not in
the same order.
(this is the same thing I found when I compared it to Jim Buyers example)

Your script has the menu cascade (Main and childNodes) behaviors all under
one "javascript:;" command.
Mine has a seperate "javascript:;" for each for each menu/button. and all
of the top menu items are clustered 1 after the other and the childNodes are
all 1 after the other but farther down in the script. ??

Is this why mine is not working? And if so, how come doing it the way I was
instructed to is not coming out like it is supposed to?
 
L

Linda T53

Addendum........ after I posted the response to Ron, I again went into
Frontpage and retried the instructions that Jim Buyers created.
I went step by step, created the main menu layer with 2 main menu options
(each in its own cell in the 1 row table) following steps 1 through 14 for
each main menu option.
I then followed the instructions for "create a menu leaf" ( to create the
behavior for the drop down portion of the menu which I created with 2
possible selections for each main category) steps 1 through 12 for the first
main menu option, then I repeated the same steps for the second main menu
option.
The results were the same as always... the second layer dissapears, the main
layer is visible, and a mouseover on the main layer produces no results below
the column..
And here is the code:

<body>

<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 28px; left: 6px; z-index: 2"
id="Mainleaf">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table1">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'Mainleaf',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show')">
Column 1</a></td>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'Mainleaf',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show')">
Column 2</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 60px; left: 7px; z-index: 3;
visibility: hidden" id="leaf1">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table2">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_2a.htm"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf1',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">
Row 1</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_2b.htm"
onclick="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf1',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">
Row 2</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 59px; left: 291px; z-index: 4;
visibility: hidden" id="leaf2">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table3">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_3.htm"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf2',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">
Row 3</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_3a.htm"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf2',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">
Row 4</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

</body>

There is either something wrong with my FrontPage, or I am interpreting
something wrong in the instrutions. Why does my code not match the code in
the examples?

Thank you
 
R

Ronx

You appear to be trying to show the menu your are already in, which is
wrong.
If you are adding a behaviour to a link in the mainmenu, you should be
changing visibility of the leaf, not the mainmenu. Additionally, as you
move around the mainmenu, you should be hiding one leaf as you show the
next.
Thus where you have:

<div style="position: absolute; top: 28px; left: 6px; z-index: 2"
id="Mainleaf">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table1">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'Mainleaf',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show')">
Column 1</a></td>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'Mainleaf',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show')">
Column 2</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

you should have:

<div style="position: absolute; top: 28px; left: 6px; z-index: 2"
id="Mainleaf">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table1">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf1',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show');
FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf2',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">">
Column 1</a></td>
<td>
<a href="javascript:;"
onmouseover="FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf2',0,'style.visibility','visible','visibility','show');
FP_changeProp(/*id*/'leaf1',0,'style.visibility','hidden','visibility','hide')">
Column 2</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

In the leaves, you appear to be trying to hide them as soon as you mouse
over a link in the leaf. In your menu the links in the leaves should not
have any behaviours added at all, the leaf visibility manipulation should be
in the mainmenu.


The leaves should be:

<div style="position: absolute; top: 60px; left: 7px; z-index: 3;
visibility: hidden" id="leaf1">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table2">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_2a.htm"> Row 1</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_2b.htm" > Row 2</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 59px; left: 291px; z-index: 4;
visibility: hidden" id="leaf2">
<table border="1" width="100%" id="table3">
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_3.htm"> Row 3</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/DDSWeb/test_3a.htm"> Row 4</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>

</body>


See www.rxs-enterprises.org/tests/pages/column_1.htm
 
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