Quick Web Page Menu - Explanation of Code
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This paragraph explains what we have in the Style Sheet.
We do not want to change the position of the body element, so we give it a relative position property. We give it a z-index of 0. The CSS class name "menu" has been given to differentiate the table from any other table you can have on your web page. The one row table for the menu has been given the background-color: Fuchsia. To make this tutorial simple, I assumed that the only DIV elements are the two DIV elements we have for drop-down menus. The DIV elements have been given the absolute position property, a z-index of 20, and a background color of fuchsia. The DIV elements are all initially made hidden (closed). The DIV elements have been given background colors so that when they are made visible (opened) the user will not see the elements behind them (the pull down menus).
In the BODY element, we have a one row table. The two table cells of interest have the onclick event that will call the JavaScript function to make the DIV element (pull down menu) visible. When the table cell content is clicked, the function is called with the id of the corresponding DIV element passed to it.
Now let us look at the JavaScript. There are two functions here: one to make the DIV element (pull down menu) visible and the other one to hide (close) all menus when the user clicks on the body element outside the menu. The first function hides all the pull-down menus that might be visible (opened) before making visible the menu of interest.
The second function responds to the onclick event (hideMenus()) of the body element. The problem here is that when you click on the menu bar or on the body outside the menu, this function is called. The two Boolean variables (menuClicked and onlyBodyClick) are used to distinguish between clicking on the menu bar and clicking on the body outside the menu.
Finishing
If you give the above table, table cells and DIV elements sizes and then give suitable colors to your links, background of DIV and TD elements, you should have a reasonable menu which is quickly designed. Note: the colors you choose depend on the overall design and colors of you web page. I have not specified them to any great degree in order to simplify this tutorial.
Conclusion
The above process gives you a reasonable and quick design. If you want to design a menu for commercial purposes, you have to take details into consideration. For example, the items in the drop-down menu may form a list, with graphical bullets. You have to think about sub menus for the drop-down menus. You have to think about style and even animation. The basics, however, you already know from this article. GOOD LUCK.
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