Creating pop up or drop down menus

How do you create a pop out menu that does not use images or CSS?

[Stephen Tiller]

Hi

I have a website where I used Dreamweaver's wizard for creating a pop up menu. The menu works when a user moves over the image. The image in this case is an image rollover on the word Products.

What I want to do is create a pop up menu not using an image as the trigger, i.e. I want to use text only for search engine reasons and I dont want to use CSS as I believe it is not suitable for Internet Explorer.

I was under the impression that to do a pop up or drop down menu not using CSS that you first needed an image to link the menu to.

Can anybody advise on the best way to go about this?

Thanks

Steve

[Don_Hoagie]

Hi Stephen.

Where did you come up with the idea that CSS is not suitable for IE? Are you running an ancient version of IE? CSS is not only suitable for styling no-image navigation, it is the web standard. Anything other than that is either counter-productive, deprecated, or just plain no longer supported.

You do not need to use an image anywhere in the nav if you don't want to. Javascript is usually necessary for any kind of menu interactivity, CSS is optimal for styling the menu text/links/other elements, and HTML supplies your actual content. Given that, this thread should go in the Javascript forum, with a touch of CSS forum input for figuring out the style of the menu.

I would advise that you search for how to do this instead of posting the question, as many tutorials have been done already.

Good luck

[Stephen Tiller]

Hi Don

Thanks for the advice. My Impression that you could not use CSS came from 2 sources. One is a brand new CSS book written by a very well known author where it quotes "but they don't work in Internet Explorer!"

The full text is headed: "Can I create pure CSS drop-down menus?"

"we saw how to create image and Javascript-free rollovers. Can the same be achieved for drop down menus?

The answer is yes... but they don't work in Internet Explorer..."

I have not actually read the whole chapter and the relevant preceding chapter yet, so I might well have misunderstood the context this was meant.

The other source came from a colleague.

Steve

[Don_Hoagie]

I suppose they were speaking of some particular element of the CSS, or they were experimenting with some magical new-fangled menu design, or... I dunno, I honestly can't fathom someone saying that. If anything, there are CSS attributes that ONLY work for IE... but these would be proprietary attributes. The standards of CSS are just that- the standards of layout and styling. Either you are misunderstanding these people's commentary, or they are giving you wrong information.

If links were allowed to be posted here, I could show you my site, or a few tutorials from a certain popular website... ho hum. Maybe I can give you some better advice via Sticky Mail.

At any rate, the basics of what you need to know to answer your question are as follows:

You don't need to use an image anywhere in a nav menu if you don't want to. You don't need to create any complex code to create a nav menu either- you can use HTML lists, or CSS divs, whatever you like that can organize something. If you want the menus to look like anything other than a bunch of underlined blue hyperlinks, you WILL need to use CSS. And if you want the menu to function with a drop-down or other interactive effect, you will need a bit of Javascript. It is possible to make CSS-only navigation that "fakes" interactivity, since you can use the "hover" attribute of CSS as a faux-rollover... but unfortunately, it doesn't work in IE.

Just kidding.