Hey people, Is there anywhere that I could find lots of ideas for menus and such? I have only just started really getting to grips with CSS but I still have some problems when it comes to menus. A place with lots of info and ideas for CSS menus would be awesome! Thanks in advance!
Hmmm... googling css menus will get you a lot of answers, but maybe not all correct ones. There are tutorials on SitePoint.com and menus are in there. One problem you'll find is many menus use javascript. There are pure css menus but IE of course gives problems with :hover unless everything in the menu actually is a link (IE only looks at :hover on links). Many people like the Suckerfish menus, which uses javascript for IE. I'm currently slogging through Stu Nicholl's pure css drop down which has a lot of IE stuff too. Don't use Phoenity if it turns up in google-- doesn't work in IE. Trying to keep your lists as simple as possible make for the easiest menus.
Oh I was not aware of the problems in IE, I would prefer to steer away from JavaScript though as obviously the search engines can't read it. I guess I will check those links out and stick to the pure CSS ones but keep it simple. Thanks guys!
Go with Suckerfish. All the script does is adds a class to the HTML so that Internet Explorer can hook into it. I also recommend staying away from Stu's CSS "dropdown" menus. Not only do they use more code than necessary, but they also abuse HTML like you wouldn't believe as well.
I'm the one who tries to avoid javascrpit. The script in Suckerfish isn't one that replaces html, thus it's okay -- good even-- the google doesn't see it. The only one who should ever see it is IE6. The only problem with javascrpit at all is that people may have it turned off. As someone here has said before, if someone's smart enough to turn js off, they're probably smart enough to use a better browser than ie anyway. I like trying to do everything in pure css, but you don't have to. There's also another file, only for ie, that also takes care of the ie hover problem. Instead of using js, another file is downloaded (.htc file) by IE. You can get it at Peter's site. It gets around the "what if someone doesn't have js turned on" question. udm4 has many menus, mostly with JS, though there is a css-only drop-down which they repeatedly don't recommend because they're using js to slow the hovers (for disabled people).
Actually, HTC files are affected by people with scripting turned off since they're JavaScript files that are stored with a different file extension that allows them to be embedded inside stylesheets when combined with Microsoft's proprietary CSS behavior property.