Suggested Navbar Changes

**Gene S** · 24 November 2019, 03:53 PM

The navbar is not user friendly when websites have child pages (i.e.: tree structure) because everything has to be set up manually. If you only have a few pages, it works well. If you have a lot of pages, it becomes a chore. I'm guessing that I'll only have about 80 pages on my website when I'm done, but others have indicated that they have 200 or more. I can't imagine handling setting up and/or making changes to the navbars on those sites.

My programming background is in numerous languages for factory automation and doesn't include html programming so I'm not an expert, but I believe the changes would be fairly simple. The suggestions could be a modification to the existing menu, or another menu that could be used in addition / in place of the existing menu.

I currently have 5 website development programs on my computer, and, after going back and forth between all of the programs to try to find the best one for this website, have finally (currently?) decided on using Designer Pro X because it has so many good features. On the negative side, the current navbar takes the most time and work to set up and maintain. If the menu system were better, I wouldn't even consider using any other program.

I hope everyone will understand what I'm proposing in the attached PDF. I'm hoping that those with no programming experience will be able to follow the blue boxes and understand how (easy?) the changes would be to use. I think I have enough additional notes where those with programming could picture the logic. I'm looking forward to suggestions on how to improve this AND possible problems people might see with the changes. Negative, as well as positive feedback is appreciated.

Thank you,
Gene

**gwpriester** · 24 November 2019, 05:13 PM

I'll move this to the Dear Xara forum which is where we post bug reports and feature requests.

I am sure that most users will agree with what you are suggesting. The current nav bar set up leaves a lot to be desired. And we have been pushing for an update for a long time. But you never know.

**Acorn** · 24 November 2019, 05:32 PM

Gene, I like the idea of declaring the NavBar "Mobile": all top level links then are moved to the next sub-level and the Top Level button gains ">>" after its name.

For the rest, the use of the Navbar properties is no good for structuring sub-pages if you are not using a NavBar. I would ask Xara to focus on adding a page structure into the Page & Layer gallery instead. This remove the need of jumping into other dialogs to terminate a sub-menu. Any NavBar creation use this tree to place the buttons accordingly.

It will be far easier to discard the NavBar mechanism altogether and simply use nested HTML UL/LI unordered lists. Xara could then focus on generating CSS3 code to convert the list into a nested NavBar where each level has the same presentation (or not) as the top level, a thing currently impossible with the Xara NavBar code.

Acorn

**Gene S** · 24 November 2019, 06:09 PM

Hi,

Since I'm new to TalkGraphics, I wasn't sure if it would be best to post it under "Xara Web Design Chat" or "Dear Xara" since every forum has it's own personality. Someone on another Xara site suggested the Chat, and I thought it might get more views/support there to encourage Xara to make a change. Thought about posting it in both locations but worried that it may be frowned upon. It'll take me a little time to get the feel of this form.

Thank you,
Gene

**Gene S** · 24 November 2019, 06:37 PM

Hi Acorn,

2 of the 5 website programs I have use the tree structure, which is very nice. My thoughts, right or wrong, is that it would be a major step for Xara to convert what they have to the tree format. I thought that what I'm suggesting would be a simple patch to get by until they do a major revision. With mobile becoming the de facto standard, I think the whole menu system has to be re-thought to make larger sites more usable on mobile devices, which could then also be used on desktops as many desktop sites are going to the hamburger style menu.

As I said, my programming experience is in factory automation, not in HTML (although I have a very basic understanding of it), so I'm not an expert when it comes to websites.

Thanks for your feedback. I've read a few of your responses to other post, and you really seem to know what you're talking about.

Thank you,
Gene

Addition: I just re-read my last sentence. It could be read as sarcasm, but wasn't intended that way. I liked your answers!

**behzad** · 25 November 2019, 12:44 PM

Most mobile sites are simpler and use less pages. You can design a custom mobile site so that you avoid having so many pages. Shrink down your desktop site to what is important for mobile users.

**Acorn** · 25 November 2019, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by behzad

Most mobile sites are simpler and use less pages. You can design a custom mobile site so that you avoid having so many pages. Shrink down your desktop site to what is important for mobile users.

Current Xara software matches page-for page (less content) so this is difficult to properly customise. It is still down to Xara to integrate Variants better so they are adaptive; separate code out; publish to separate sub-folders; allow Main and Variants to be different to each other as Conventional Website (Main) and Supersite (Variants). Get those done so NavBars can be better defined.

Acorn