Drop down menus

They have: 112 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

Hi Folks,

I've always used an external dhtml or javascript for creating drop down menus. I decided to get my act together and make them from DW MX, to do it all from the one program & all that. Not only can I not work out DW's drop down menus but from the ones I have seen they make a massive amount of code on each page compared to DHTML. Is it worth persevering with DW menus or should I stick to simpler external scripts? (Like Jim's dhtml menu)

Thankyou wise people of TWF

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

A necessisity sometimes to use dhtml and javascript menus, its fairly up to you, the advantage however is that youll have cleaner codes when you use external scripts, also you can tweak it manually as required... Its good to learn how to make this menus in DW. Notice that even the biggest sites use external scripts for their menus...

JeevesBond's picture

He has: 3,956 posts

Joined: Jun 2002

Nothing wrong with using external scripts, just keeping a copy of them saved somewhere is as good as using the code in DW, and at least your gaining a little insight into how to code.

It doesn't really make much difference whether you use the DW ones or something from a scripting site, they're both written by someone else!

Personally I've never used drop-downs, but if I had to I would read the ALA article on standards compliant drop-downs. Smiling

a Padded Cell our articles site!

They have: 112 posts

Joined: Aug 2001

Thanks I'll read the standards link. The problem, so I've been reading, is that the external scripts aren't compatible in as many browsers as DW drop downs.

Thoughts?

demonhale's picture

He has: 3,278 posts

Joined: May 2005

Read Jeeves notes, many dropdown methods are becoming a standard practice and is compliant, thus is cross-browser compatible... Dont convince yourself with what a WYSIWYG can do, rather be open and look for comparisons... For my own, ive tried them all, I sometimes use DW in the past (not these days) , and its quite good, but I code by hand, I wonder why that is....

Roo's picture

She has: 840 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

I'm currently running the DW8 demo, and I have to say that the script it puts out is very, very bloated. I haven't checked to see how valid it's scripts are, but from what I'm seeing I'm thinking there would be validation issues.

Try Dynamic Drive or something like it. But your best bet would be to visit the ALA link that Jeeves gave you.

Roo

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