bill t. said:
Great recommendations from you both! I gotta try it. According to Jim
Buyens, 2003 has not added this functionality and I just have to wonder why?
Thanks again.
Well, they added two other features called Layers and Behaviors. A
Layer is basically a <div> with absolute positioning, and Behaviors
are little scripts that run when certain events transpire on the
browser. If you:
1. Create a layer for each main menu option.
2. Create a layer for each drop-down menu.
3. Create "onMouseOver" behaviors for each main menu option
that:
o make the corresponding drop-down menu layer visible, and
o hide all the rest.
then you can create many kinds of drop-down menu effects. However,
menus that you build this way won't work in Netscape 4. And once you
display any drop-down menu, you can never get all the drop-down
menus hidden again. (At least not in the amount of time I spent
trying).
As to why Microsoft didn't create a full-bore DHTML menu feature,
I really have no inside information. My guess is that the product
cycle is too short but again, that's only a guess.
(By, "product cycle is too short," I mean that third-party tools
adapt to new browser versions and expand their feature set on an
almost monthly basis. It's very hard for a program like FrontPage,
which has been coming out about once every two years, to keep up.)
Or perhaps you can safely ignore Netscape 4 compatibility. The
question is, do you consider it a six year old browser or a one
year old browser?
Netscape Navigator 4.0 June 1997
Netscape Navigator 4.5 June 1998
Netscape Navigator 4.7 Sep. 1999
Netscape Navigator 4.8 Aug. 2002
Or more significantly, what percentage of your Web site hits
are Netscape 4.x?
Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*------------------------------------------------------*
|\----------------------------------------------------/|
|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out ||
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out ||
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition ||
|| Troubleshooting Microsoft FrontPage 2002 ||
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming ||
|| (All from Microsoft Press) ||
|/----------------------------------------------------\|
*------------------------------------------------------*