make dropdown menu "look better"

[wfcentral]

I have a client asking me if I can make the dropdown portion of the navbar "look better" or "more fancy" - I find that all you can change on the dropdown menu is the color, border and spacing.

Has anyone figured out a way to do anything really cool looking like icons for sub-menu items, dropdown shadows, gradient backgrounds, etc...

[aridzone]

You have to design your buttons with Popups - no nav bar

[Xhris]

Hi, I cover how to make custom graphical navbars with nice-looking submenus in this video. You have to use the layering system and not the DHTML NavBar tool. Hope it helps.

[wfcentral]

Thanks for the help and the links to the videos - that's just what I needed...

[scruffy.thedog]

xhris - fab video very clear makes a complicated subject easy to folllow especially as we can rewind and pause the video

Did you use camtasia?

scruffy

[Xhris]

(Yes, camtasia studio v6, 1280x720 (HD--no need to go higher to 1080p really), mp4 export; standard mic.)

[Pegasus]

Hi Xhris,

I am just a beginner.
Falling over on first click.
I have created the box, but it does not show 'Rectangle' under MouseOff not all groups further in the demo - hence I stopped.
Is there a property setting to show that detail in the layers view?

[Xhris]

Hi, I think I know what you're getting at. Designer Pro 6 allows full details in the Layers gallery to be visible, but web designer doesn't. Also, before grouping, make sure the button rectangle drawn is on the same layer as the text label. Objects are drawn on the active layer (the one with the arrow icon on it); click a layer to make it active. In web designer, you can cut objects to the clipboard, select the desired layer in the layer gallery, and paste back to put them on that layer. It might help to learn about how the layer gallery works (the help file will be a good place), because it's used a lot for making layer-driven navbars, and is a powerful tool in itself used a lot.

[Pegasus]

Ok, got that, I have Xara Webdesigner 6. I have experimented further and have the nav bar working now.

[gwpriester]

You can also customize the drop down menus somewhat by using the Menu Style option if you do not want to mess with the layers option.