Stupid Beginner Question... 1

[jakecdemp]

Hi, I'm a graphic designer who's pretty new to web development, (I'm not sure if this is where I should post this or not...) and I have a really basic question:

I would like to find a menu for my website that is css or javascript or something along those lines that would take an image that lays under the text in my menu and when I click on a different page will slide to where I clicked and then load the page I clicked on. (If that makes sense...)

I have attached an of image to show you what I'm working with.

Any help at all would be appreciated! If you could fill me in on if there is even a name for this style of menu, that would be great, too.

 

[mmerlinn]

I don't have an answer to your question, but I do have a question of my own for you.

Why do you want a menu lying on its side? I would think that would drive people AWAY from your website.

mmerlinn

http://mmerlinn.com

"We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding. Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding." - Eric Raymond

Poor people do not hire employees. If you soak the rich, who are you going to work for?

 

[Wullie]

The effect you are looking for is commonly known as a "rollover menu" so searching Google for that should get you some good results. If you are sure you want images rather than just a similar effect, something like "image rollover menu" might be a better term to search for.

Hope this helps,

Wullie

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[kjv1611]

Yeah, the effect you're looking for is definitely the rollover effect. As to how you implement it, that will depend upon what you're using for your web design. You can do it in CSS, Flash, Java, and probably others. Also, if you use a prebuilt CMS, you can use their default programming - if that option is avaialable, or you can use other custom coded plugins or modules.

Do you already know for sure what tool(s) you're going to use for the web design overall? If not, and you don't want to have to mess with all the code for the site, but would rather stick to doing the visual (graphics/design) end of things, then a CMS solution, in my opinion, is the way to go nowadays.

I'm currently using Drupal myself (

http://drupal.org).

However, there are other CMSes that others really like as well. Such are Joomla, Wordpress, phpBB for forums, and some others I can't think of off hand.

You can take a look at these websites for various CMS reviews, examples, etc:

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

and

http://www.cmsreview.com/

and

http://php.opensourcecms.com/

and

http://cmsreview.net/

and

http://www.cmswire.com/

and
and others, via Google.

I've specifically looked at CMSMatrix and OpenSourceCMS on multiple occasions myself. The others I'm not sure about.
Well, I think I've looked at CMSWire as well..

 

[kjv1611]

Oh, I would mention along with mmerlinn, unless you have some specifiic niche audience that you're looking that which you KNOW will like the sideway's menu, that it's likely a bad idea. You could always have some event that causes it to go sideways, but most people prefer to read with the text strait accross, which would mean the menu would need to go up to down, not left to right, with words lying on their back.

Just a thought.

 

[jakecdemp]

Thank you all for your help!

The reason I was looking into doing a sideways menu is I wanted to do something different. I decided to look around a little more, though, and I realized there's probably a reason nobody really has a menu like that. I've changed it to something much simpler that I like even better.

The rollover menu was exactly what I was hoping to do. I don't know why I didn't think of trying to search for that!

Right now I'm using iWeb in a kind of rigged way. I'll lay out everything in iWeb and then use dreamweaver to edit code and do some fine tuning. I know it's not the best way, but it works for where I'm at right now. I'm hoping to move completely out of iWeb very soon. I haven't really looked into any other methods yet because I was just doing websites as kind of a hobby or to help some friends out, but now it's becoming my focus more and more.

Any other advice you guys have is appreciated. Thanks again for your help!

 

[kjv1611]

In my opinion, the final outcome is what's most important. Of course, if you're building the sites, your own sanity and enjoyment should be important to you. And when you can meld the 2 together, that's when the perfect solution for YOU is what you're using.

I've never used iWeb, but I can imagine that if I used a Mac, myself, I'd at least look at iWeb, from what I could see at a quick glance.

Anyway, glad you found what you wanted. Finding the "key word" or key phrase for a particular thing is usually the biggest battle nowadays, with the world wide web having so much readily available info.

 

[BigRed1212]

For additonal menus have

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/

as a reference as well.

 

[kjv1611]

Thanks, BigRed1212. That site looks rather informative. I'll have to peruse it occasionally, at least.

 

[spamjim]

If iWeb works sufficiently for prototyping/design, keep it up.

In the Adobe product line (if you want to keep it in the family), Fireworks is used for prototyping/design.

A Mac user may also want to look at Freeway Pro.

 

[burbon]

Good tips for a budding web designer comming from print or other design medium.

When designing for the web you want to consider what the user is expecting to see and use.Menus, forms etc, keep standard to a degree.

Theres also conraints in coding the design so it has cross platform usability. "the javascript / flash menu's are not as good as say CSS for search emgine spiders etc and may not appear on mobile phones and older browsers"

I used to design lovely menu's that could do the irish jig , but in the end its design for the web, not the web for your design.

There are things that need to be kept weblike and things you have a little bit of freedom designing. It makes the creative sphere tighter and you really have to be ever more inventive with only so many materials to work with.

A good example is the use of sillottes. Ultimatly a web image wants to be one colour so its loads mega fast. You can use sillottes very effectivly and keep the page size down and still have a cutting edge design. The obvious limitation here is the fact that you cant use many colours together, but you can use more of these images, many sillottes to one .jpg. Then your design skills needs to be about how you use these and what they are , rather than how good you are at using photoshop or illustrator "well that as well actually".

I saw a lot of print designers in the 90's and they were doing the same thing.

All the best.

 

[burbon]

p.s. by virtue of its own existence, a question can never be stupid, only a person who doesnt ask questions is stupid.

Richard Burbage 2010 but could have been Yoda really !!