Nav Bar Question

[wfcentral]

I'm trying to make a navbar similar to the one seen on this site - http://www.watertectonics.com (menu at top)

I'm not concerned with the "fade" effect... that is not what I'm having trouble with.

- default text only no background (rounded square shape behind text)
- mouseover you see the background
- when page is selected the background stays visible so you know what page you are on...

I know there is mouseOver, mouseOff, and mouseDown but I can't seem to get that type menu.

[gwpriester]

Make the button shape the same for both. But for the text only version (MouseOff), make the button background the same color as the color beneath it.

[wfcentral]

Make the button shape the same for both. But for the text only version (MouseOff), make the button background the same color as the color beneath it.

Gary, thanks for the advice... the problem would be that I'm using a texture underneath.

Not sure how it worked, but I placed the dark background on a layer called mouseDown and it worked fine... http://wfcentral.com/clients/petrowater02/index.htm

[Big Frank]

That seems to have worked out fine.

[gwpriester]

Mouse Down shows up when you click down on a button and it also becomes the current page icon.

I like to use a mouse down button so that the mouse over state is not the same as the current page button.

[kateswan11]

Ok.. I'm going crazy trying to figure out this nav bar thing! I've read every thread on nav bars, and watched every YouTube video I could find, but I'm getting muddled!!!

I'm using Xara Web Designer MX.

I dragged in one of the nav bars from the designs gallery. I managed to change the gradient on the MouseOff layer buttons, so that's good. But then I added a copy of the buttons onto a MouseDown layer (and changed the gradients to something different - I'm assuming that this layer will show up when a button is being clicked, yes?), but I can't turn the buttons back into a nav bar! It either tells me its not appropriate as a nav bar, or it only creates a nav bar based on just one layer. Do I need to soft group each button across the three layers? If so, how?? or do I have to apply a soft group across all buttons on all layers?? Or no soft groups at all???

I know I'm probably doing something stupidly wrong and will probably look like a dunce, but rather than keep going round in circles I figured I'd just post and hope for the best.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[kateswan11]

I'm trying to make a navbar similar to the one seen on this site - http://www.watertectonics.com (menu at top)

I'm not concerned with the "fade" effect... that is not what I'm having trouble with.

I'd be interested to know how this "fade" effect is created... anyone know how???

Also.. how do I remove rounded corners off a nav bar button (one of the nav bars from the design gallery would be ideal except for the rounded corners on the first and last buttons)?

And another thing: How do I create a text-only version on the MouseOff layer like wfcentral's example at http://wfcentral.com/clients/petrowater02/index.htm?

And finally: Is it possible to use images instead of flat shapes for the button backgrounds for a nav bar? When I tried it I got alignment issues when I turned the buttons into a nav bar.. the button sizes were changed so the images on the MouseOver layer didn't fit properly. And, yes, I tried unchecking the checkboxes in the nav bar window. Although I think I only had this problem when I was using Xara 7.. I don't think I had that problem in MX. I dunno. I'm getting way confused.

These nav bars are going to be my downfall!!!

[Drwyd]

Whoa there Kate

First off - Welcome to TG

Multiple questions can make it difficult to keep the forums clear and logical for forum users, best to start a new thread for each query.

The are some very good tutorials in my sig. (just below) these will give you a very good understanding of the process of building nav bars. Give them a look over and ask away if things are still not clear.

Tip 1: To isolate layers so that they are easier to work on use "solo" mode. click the "S" beside the layer in the "page and layer gallery"

Tip 2: Buttons need to be grouped (text and background) and all the button states ("off", "down" and "over" layers) will need to be soft grouped.

[kateswan11]

Well.. I spent a while deconstructing it, reconstructing it, ungrouping, regrouping... but in the end I scrapped the lot and started again step by step, and I finally got a decent nav bar working.

[trukkerz]

hi kate is this what your after ?? if so just copy/paste it into your page

nav bar.web

basically you just have 3 buttons (groups) 1 on each layer (mouseoff,mouseover & mousedown) then drag a marquee around them all to select them all - then goto to arrange - alignment and click in the center and click apply - this puts them all on top of each other - then apply a soft group to them - then right click on the button you can see and create nav bar - should work then . - cheerz