MouseOver glitch or what?

**philt** · 13 January 2011, 06:08 PM

Trying to get a handle on make-my own navbar. I think I have things set up correctly for this very simple test of navbar with sub menu items (attached .xar file). Seems to work okay in Export and Preview mode--except that after a first pass with the mouse over B2 button B6 does not show the highlight on a second pass. Same thing with button B4. Not sure if this is a Xara glitch or something else. Any help appreciated of course.

**xtom** · 13 January 2011, 06:34 PM

Seems to work fine here, I can't reproduce what you're saying in the preview.

**gwpriester** · 13 January 2011, 07:42 PM

Works fine for me Phil

**philt** · 14 January 2011, 03:03 PM

Thanks Xtom and Gary. Well, it does work fine after all, but only after doing a full export. In preview mode, no, the glitch shows up. Mouseover on button 2 for instance and mouseover works okay; b5 and b6 highlight as expected. Mouseover a second time and b6 fails to show the mouseover state. No big deal I guess, but it confused me enough that it led to this post. But I take it that for you guys, it worked okay in preview mode? Grateful for your time.

**philt** · 14 January 2011, 03:18 PM

Additional note: adding a fade command seems to correct this problem in preview mode.

**Xhris** · 15 January 2011, 09:37 PM

Hi. I checked out your file and there are a few minor errors in the navbar which may explain why it’s not always working correctly. For example, B6 calls a mouseover layer explicitly via the mouseover tab in web properties, which is unnecessary as mouseover layers should just work. I also noticed that the popup layer and its corresponding mouseover layer name are not the same (I was surprised it worked at all actually, as I always thought they had to be identical!).

I've attached a modified xar file with the navbar working correctly in case it helps. Essentially, there are buttons on the mouseoff layer with corresponding buttons on the mouseover layer. Each button-pair is softgrouped together. The slight difference is B2, whose mouseoff is set to reveal the popup layer via the mouseover tab in web properties. B2’s mouseover should be on the popup layer and not the original mouseover layer; however, both are still softgrouped (one designed advantage of softgroups is they allow inter-layer grouping).

I have videos which can help you learn how to create navbars in websites which might help further.

**philt** · 18 January 2011, 04:51 PM

Xhris, thanks very much--most helpful. One thing though, why must each 'button pair' be softgrouped together; is it not enough just to softgroup the whole thing? Or am I still missing something.

**Xhris** · 18 January 2011, 09:57 PM

Hi, The first advantage of softgroups is that they allow inter-layer groupings of objects (e.g. button states). However, the second advantage is that all identical text strings in the softgroup will update simultaneously when one changes. This is useful again for button pairs; changing the text of one automatically changes the text in another, saving you time. This is why you wouldn't softgroup the whole navbar, as it would stop this functionality. The reason why someone might want to softgroup a whole navbar is to help manage it better, i.e. move it all together at once. However, there is a better, designed way to do this: to name all elements in the navbar with "Repeating: some name". The repeating name ensures that a double click on one such named object will automatically select all other objects, irrespective of which layer they're on or whether they're visible etc. This is covered with example in this video if it helps understanding.

**philt** · 20 January 2011, 05:40 PM

Yes, thanks again Xhris; your explanation is good, especially the bit about naming, something I've ignored in the past. I approach nav bars now with more confidence.

**dejan** · 06 March 2011, 03:11 PM

Hi all. I dont know where else to write this so I did it here. I have problems making a mouseover graphic. I uploaded two psd pictures and I want to make a mouseover from them. Please explain from step to step how to do this. I watched all available videos and read the xara manual and it seems its not working for me. I dont know if the problem is in my software or windows 7x64bit all updates downloaded.
I hate to sound noobish bit Im desperate now. Pls. help me.
I have the xara web designer 6.