Not strictly Spain related, but I hope Jer will let me get away with it...

I'm working on a new website project, and since there will be dozens of internal links, I desperately need to build a vertical 'drop down' menu. I have downloaded two free trial versions (Xara and AllWebMenus) both of which are easy to use and produce exactly the results I'm after. Trouble is that these free trial versions- not surprisingly- allow me to design a menu, but not to save it in any form that would be useable for my website.

Does anyone know of a free software download that will allow me to create AND SAVE AND USE a drop down menu?

And while I'm on the subject, I'd like to experiment with a little bit of simple FLASH, something like Jer used in the sponsor banners (J and J's etc) on this site.

I'm too poor to pay for the software

Can anybody point me in the right direction? Anyone? Jer? Roland?

Cheers,
Steve

hey Steve.

ya got away with it but get one minor hand slap for putting it on the wrong forum. no fear, i moved it.

aaaaahhhh, playin with FLASH, you got hours of frustra... emmm, errr... fun ahead of ya

last month i was looking for the same thing as you, the menu builder. i ran into the same problem as you did, build all ya want online but no keeping.

i found better solutions at http://www.javaboutique.com, i use that site often for menus ideas and such.

if there will be that many links and you have a lot of pages with the menu on them and you will need to add to the menus, i recommend you use a dropdown that relies upon a separate javascript include file. see the menu at the top of http://www.spainsim.com/home.htm for what i mean.

you see, if you use a normal menu builder, you would have to edit the menu on every page tomake changes/additions. if you use the one i used, you can change the menu on all pages that use it by just editing one js document. this can DRASTICALLY reduce work for future changes.

did i lose you? sorry.

basically, a normal menu will read from the script on the page it is on while one like that at http://www.spainsim.com/home.htm will read the menu options from the js include file no matter what page the visitor is on. if you navigate through the site starting at http://www.spainsim.com/home.htm you will see the menu is the same on every page. it is very easy to add/remove/edit menu items.

maybe Roland or someone else has more ideas on the menu.

FLASH, i'm sure you will get a private message from someone as to where you can "buy" a next to free copy

quote:

I'm too poor to pay for the software

and if you go crazy trying to desing in FLASH or need help with your site in general, i am willing to trade service for service as i could use some chapuz... errr... handyman stuff done around my office/house and i am NOT handy at that type of stuff.

so i hear an intercambio in the making?

saludos,
jer...

Steve:

I've had such a great time with CouchSurfing.com, that I felt I had to do my part with your project - so I searched my old files and came up with some "stuff".

Let me know if you see anything you like - I can send you the source files.

As Jer says (although there's no bigger fan of Flash than I am), I would steer you toward javascript and Cascading Style Sheets (css).

It's much easier to adapt and change as the page requires - plus you can really get something nice looking. Also, if you're unable to design it yourself, perhaps someone else can do the original design, allowing you to simply make "updates".

As I've said before (although I'm sure other's have their own opinions) : design your page first, either on paper or in your head, or whatever - then go about building that design.

Also, as for banner ads, again, Flash may be a bit much to start out with - it can be difficult for some to pick up. On the other hand, a well designed static banner looks 100x better than a poorly designed animated one.

You might also consider an "old fashioned" animated .gif to achieve dynamism, or "flash". Ya know? They're very simple to do and can look really great.

Anyway, good luck with your project.

TL

Flash Examples
CSS / JS Left
CSS / JS Top

quote:

As I've said before (although I'm sure other's have their own opinions) : design your page first, either on paper or in your head, or whatever - then go about building that design.

lately i have been designing mock-ups in photoshop for all of the banners and websites i have on the "to do" (long yet distinguished ) list.

i find that creating a vector .psd file for a mock-up of what i want to design really helps a lot.

saludos,
jer...

It Shows!!

Keep up the great work.
The site looks awesome.

T

tanx

actually, i must admit the truth. i use photoshop for my mock-ups since i can't draw to save my life

saludos,
jer...

Thanks Liberty,

Since I started looking for software, Mariposta has pointed me in the direction of Cascading Style Sheets (as you mentioned). I must admit I had never heard of CSS before, and it is something of a revolution for me. Kind of like discovering the wheel a hundred years after everyone around me has been driving cars.

I've pulled a number of all-nighters studying a great online tutorial on the functions of CSS and with the help of an example that I found online (very similar to your "CSS/JS left" example) have set about creating my own multi-level drop down menu based on an unordered list... complete with images in the links.

With so many options available for menu building, it's reassuring that you recommend the road I am taking. It's been a slow, tough road for someone with such limited web design experience as myself, but I don't mind saying that the finished product is looking great!

Quite amusing though, at 4:00am when you discover that the beautiful page you designed displays perfectly in IE, but is all over the place with Mozilla.. or vice versa. I've had to return to the drawing board a number of times. Now, I have the page open in Mozilla AND IE at the same time, and check both each time I make a potentially significant change. And that still leaves Netscape, I guess

In the end, what I could have acheived in an hour with some forty dollar software package has taken me several days, but at least I know exactly how the menu works, and how I can modify it as and when I need to. And I can use my newfound CSS knowledge to save me loads of time when designing the rest of the site.

I've printed out another tutorial on DHTML and another on Javascript, so maybe some of that info will help me with banner designs and such.

As far as 'flash' goes, all I am aiming for is a little bit of movement on the page, maybe a swaying palm tree or some lapping waves on the beach. If I understand correctly, I may be able to achieve something simple like that with DHTML/Javascript. I'll still be interested to experiment with FLASH though, after all this new learnin' sinks in.

Jer, when I find myself in need of help (and I know I will!), that intercambio sounds like a great idea

Thanks,
Steve

Steve.

glad it is going well.

multimadrid uses a lot of css, especially on the board.

quote:

Quite amusing though, at 4:00am when you discover that the beautiful page you designed displays perfectly in IE, but is all over the place with Mozilla.. or vice versa. I've had to return to the drawing board a number of times. Now, I have the page open in Mozilla AND IE at the same time, and check both each time I make a potentially significant change. And that still leaves Netscape, I guess

aaaahhhhhhh yes, you are learning young skywalker!!! good news is that netscape will display a lot of content the same or very similar to firefox as they are both mozilla based. you will find that mozilla, mozilla firefox and netscape 6+ show things similarly.

and then there are mac browsers like safari that will screw your website beyond recognition

unfortunately, a web designer must design for mie first and foremost since the VASY majority of "internauts" use it over the rest.

i usually design to look good in mie and firefox as a general rule.

quote:

In the end, what I could have acheived in an hour with some forty dollar software package has taken me several days,

oh if i had a euro for evertime i did that!!! but it is very satisfying to do it yourself (as you know) and, as you say, if it breaks, you (should ) know how to fix it now.

quote:

Jer, when I find myself in need of help (and I know I will!), that intercambio sounds like a great idea

jejejeje, ok but i'm afraid what i need done i need done now so i am gonna dare to do it myself. hey, if you can learn css i can learn to change a door lock and hang some shelves

saludos,
jer...

when you're ready, check out

THIS

Very good Video tutorials and source code for Flash - Very Useful

Thanks again for yur help, Jer and Tony (and Mariposta)

I've just started looking at that flash tutorial, Tony, and it's sure to be a lot of 'fun' ?! (another sleepless night!)

But now I have another question. I need to design some fairly simple 'forms' for my website; you know, where readers fill in the fields, tick checkboxes and so on, and the information is relayed (somehow) to me.

I've designed the first form. It was suspiciously too easy. But now I have to make it 'work'. I have read that this can be done with Javascript only, not using CGI. Or is it better to use CGI?

I'm just looking for opinions, and directions to a useful website tutorail if anyone knows of any. Am I naiive to assume that the information entered into a form would be emailed to my inbox? Or is it far more complicated than that?

I'd appreciate any input.

Cheers,
Steve