My client insists on the "suckerfish" tradition

Mouseover Menus: in re forum21.7279

[albo]

I'm very grateful for the cited tedster discussion (Mouseover Menus - or DHTML indigestion [webmasterworld.com]), though it's closed to replies. It's still relevant, and I'll show it to my client. My client's site seems to have too few pages to merit such a set of menus but they have a pleasant appearance. I hope I can find an alternative to a "suckerfish-style" implementation, and the client doesn't care for absolute positioning.

[edited by: encyclo at 10:05 am (utc) on Feb. 18, 2006]
[edit reason] added link to referenced thread [/edit]

[encyclo]

If there aren't too many pages to your site (or your menu) then a dropdown menu can works pretty well - the problems start when the user is faced with an overwhelming choice of options rather than a menu which guide them to the information they are searching for.

What specific issues are you encountering with absolute positioning?

[albo]

1st problem with rolldown in this case is maintenance heartache. The client essentially wants a full site directory on each page of the website. Unless I maintain a directory outside and insert via javascript (or insert via server, beyond my ken), this means adding a < ul > or whatever to each file.

As for absolute positioning, the versions I've seen make it hard (in the style sheet) to calculate variable placement, incremental, left to right, for different width topics. E.g. if first category is named "Parts" and second category is named "Caterbury tales and vitamins etc." and third is named "what?" I haven't figured a general way to define #nav ul { width: ... without locking in to ems for specific contents and making the absolute < li > elements look sloppy.

I've had some luck before with a dropdown < select > / < option > list but I think I'll stick with trying to get the client to shy away from the idea of a trendy dropdown.

(Sorry to be so long-winded!)