3-state nav buttons with templates

[Billium99]

Hi All,

In the old days, if I wanted to have a mousedown state for a selected nav
button, I would simply have a third button image and insert that image for the
nav button of the page I was currently building.

Templates save so much time and sanity, but I miss that third state. Is there
a way to do this? Some kind of conditional display script that checks which
page the user is on and shows a depressed nav button for that page accordingly?

Thanks

Bill

[Murray *TMM*]

On your template page do the following:

1. Select the first menu button. Press the right arrow key once to
position the insertion bar just to the right of the button.
2. Prepare to enter the twilight zone as you now insert the DOWN state of
the button in that location. This will wreck your Design view, but that's
OK since you already have the page built. You will now have this
situation -

<img name="button1up" ...><img name="button1down" ...>

or something like it.
3. Select button1down, and use INSERT | Template Objects > Optional Region.
Give this region the name "button1down". UNCHECK the box for Show by
default. Click OK.

You have now made the downstate of button1 invisible on every child page
UNLESS the optional region's controlling boolean is changed from FALSE to
TRUE.
4. Now, select button1up and also apply an optional region to it. But this
time, click on the advanced tab in the Optional Region dialog. Now select
the radio button for an expression, and enter the following expression -

!button1down (that's an exclamation point)

This expression says "if the parameter named button1down is false, do this,
and if it's true, don't do this)".
5. Click OK and admire the mess.

But - wait until you spawn a child page. Everything looks perfect! All
buttons will be in their up state.
6. Now, in this child page, select MODIFY | Template Properties... and
select the button1down parameter. At the bottom of this dialog, you can
enable the option to set the boolean to TRUE, click OK and see what happens
to the child page. Button1 is now shown in the down state.

Repeat this process for each button and you now have a very simple up/down
state system in place for your child pages.

There are other even better ways - if you need them, ask....

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"Billium99" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:dtdqa2$opb$[email protected]..

> Hi All,
>
> In the old days, if I wanted to have a mousedown state for a selected nav
> button, I would simply have a third button image and insert that image for
> the
> nav button of the page I was currently building.
>
> Templates save so much time and sanity, but I miss that third state. Is
> there
> a way to do this? Some kind of conditional display script that checks
> which
> page the user is on and shows a depressed nav button for that page
> accordingly?
>
> Thanks
>
> Bill
>

[Billium99]

Thanks Murray!

I'll try that tonight. I appreciate the detailed instructions! =-)

Bill

[Murray *TMM*]

You're welcome. Consider adapting these, too -

It's easy to do with CSS or with javascript.

With CSS you would have a little stylesheet embedded in the head of each
page that allows you to set the down state for any given button (each button
would have a unique id - for example -

<a href="foo.html" id="button1">...<a href="bar.html" id="button2">

and then your stylesheet would have this -

a#button1 { styles }

on one page, and on another this -

a#button2 { styles }

See how that works?

With javascript, put this in script tags in the head of the document -

function P7_downImage() {
var g7="<imagename>"
var g7url="<pathname>"
if ((g7=MM_findObj(g7))!=null) {g7.src=g7url;}
}

and this on the <body> tag

onload="P7_downImage()"

Then on each page you would need to make two edits:

Set g7 to the *name* of the button (not the file name but the HTML name -
e.g., "productsbutt"), and g7url to the pathname to the button (e.g.,
"images/nav/button3.gif"), and bada bing, bada boom!

There is an excellent tutorial here -

[url]http://www.projectseven.com/support/answers.asp?id=126[/url]

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
[url]http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com[/url] - Template Triage!
[url]http://www.projectseven.com/go[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.dwfaq.com[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/[/url] - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================


"Billium99" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:dtf816$p13$[email protected]..

> Thanks Murray!
>
> I'll try that tonight. I appreciate the detailed instructions! =-)
>
> Bill

[Billium99]

Murray, this is terrific!

I sort of dropped off for a few weeks while I was travelling - sorry for the
delay.

Your first set of detailed steps worked beautifully, and I will look to trying
this CSS approach as soon as I can.

Thanks again!

Bill

[Murray *ACE*]

Good luck, Bill.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
[url]http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com[/url] - Template Triage!
[url]http://www.projectseven.com/go[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.dwfaq.com[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/[/url] - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================


"Billium99" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:dud93s$k23$[email protected]..

> Murray, this is terrific!
>
> I sort of dropped off for a few weeks while I was travelling - sorry for
> the
> delay.
>
> Your first set of detailed steps worked beautifully, and I will look to
> trying
> this CSS approach as soon as I can.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> Bill
>