Nav bar with each button different.... Breathe...breathe...

**Artyboots** · 03 November 2012, 12:46 PM

Hello experts,

Can I just ask a few questions before I have to do a complex custom nav bar for real.......?

I want to make a nav bar with each button different, and having both a mouse over and mouse down state. (I would like to have a mouse over for the mouse down, too, but can't think how to do that. Gary p will remember it as a fourth button state in NOF).

I have had no problems making ordinary custom nav bars. But I am getting unexpected results trying to do this, so I know I m approaching it the wrong way. Does each button have to be its own nav bar, as it were? Or should I make a plain nav bar and substitute the real graphics afterwards? Also can I ask, should several objects be made joined in some way first?. I am getting unexpected results if i start with a button that is already a group.

Finally, can a bitmap/s be the foundation of a nav bar button? I don't think so, but am so befuddled with other variables I might be wrong.

Although there are basic tuts on custom nav bars there isn't anything that goes into the kind of detail I would really appreciate. I am pretty sure it is possible to do what I want as Xara can do anything.

Thanks in advance.

Ali

**gwpriester** · 03 November 2012, 01:57 PM

Hi Ali - MouseDown a third button state and to create this is simple. Create a new layer that is above MouseOver and call it MouseDown. MouseDown will be the state that identifies the page and that appears briefly when you click a button.

To accomplish what you want is also simple. Don't create a traditional nav bar. Create individual buttons. You can arrange them any way you want. I've done this on my personal site www.gwpriester.com except the buttons look like a normal nav bar but the colors are different. And each button has a mouse down state.

But your buttons could all be different shapes. There is no restriction for what you can do. Think outside the nav bar.

**gwpriester** · 03 November 2012, 02:16 PM

You can use bitmaps for buttons. But if you want to make a Nav bar, then the text must be grouped with the bitmap.

But you can use bitmaps for individual buttons, as I outlined in my previous posts. In which case, as long as the buttons have two states, and are linked, will work as buttons. See attached. If you get a warning that the file was created with a newer version, just open the file and everything will work fine.