dropdown menu

[greentea]

Hi there,

What are you using for dropdown menu? I know little about Javascript. I want to find a tool that can help me create drop-down menu without much JS knowleadge. It should have enough templates. And it can display correctly across different kinds of browsers.

[Kravvitz]

I recommend the Suckerfish Menu System. The two variants at positioniseverything.net have some extra benefits not found in the other variants.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/dropdowns/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/horizdropdowns/
http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/hybrid/
http://www.csscreator.com/menu/multimenu.php
http://www.positioniseverything.net/css-flyout.html
http://www.positioniseverything.net/css-dropdowns.html
http://www.tjkdesign.com/articles/dropdown/

These three articles explain how to style lists.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taminglists/
http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listutorial/
http://www.webreference.com/programming/css_lists/

[greentea]

Hi Kravvitz,

Many many thanks! The information you provide point me to the right direction.

I have another question. Is it possible to make the sub menu displaying cross frame?
For example, I have a webpage made up of two frames, the right frame and the left frame. I want to put the parent menu in the left frame and the sub menu popup in the right frame.

Thanks again!

[Kravvitz]

You're welcome :)

Yes, making it display cross-frame is possible, but it's a bad idea.

Actually, it's better to not use frames at all.

Whay are frames so evil? (http://www.html-faq.com/htmlframes/?framesareevil)
Why Frames Are Bad (http://karlcore.com/articles/article.php?id=2)
http://apptools.com/rants/framesevil.php
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200411/who_framed_the_web_frames_and_usability/
Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time)(1996) (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html)
What's wrong with frames? (http://www.htmlhelp.com/design/frames/whatswrong.html)
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/framesnoframes.htm
Frames - The Problems And Solutions: Explanations as to why you probably shouldn't use frames, along with alternatives that you can use instead. (http://www.dorward.me.uk/www/frames/)

[greentea]

Thank you Kravvitz! Your articals give me a complete new introduction on frame. But I think there is nothing wrong with frame itself.

I googled some apps that can make drop-down menu. One of them impressed me much, they created a sample of cross-frame menu:
http://www.sothink.com/product/dhtmlmenu/store/crossframe/onemenu/frameset.htm

BTW, I will keep on learning Javascript. Do you know the most effective way to learn JS?

[Kravvitz]

The best way to learn depends on the person. Try to find resources that aren't more than 3 years old. Don't forget to learn about DOM1+ too.

It is better to use PHP includes (http://www.joe2torials.com/view_tutorial.php?view=3) or SSI (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html) instead of frames and iframes. *sigh* Well, I can't make you take my advice.