I can't position and lock the menu over a specific graphic.

[nunzilla]

Hi,

I am currently mocking up a site for a client using a demo of Version 5.723 of the Milonic menu system. The job requires that the menu stay in one spot regardless of the size of the window the site is displayed in.

I am authoring the site in Dreamweaver on a PC using Windows XP Pro SP2. I haven't as yet tested it on other browsers/systems as I'm only making a mock-up at this point.

The problem I'm having consists of two parts:

a) The menu refuses to lock in to the spot I want it in and stay there
b) I can't get the menu to 'float' over the area I want it in to start off with. It keeps distorting my other graphics.

I've hammered away at this for the better part of today, I've tried the many and varied fixes in the forums but I can't seem to correct the problem...and I daresay I'll be seeing the 'Tramline' menu style in my dreams tonight...

I've included three links with this query-

The first link is the site mock-up I’m attempting to put the menu into:

http://www.theelevengroup.com/mockups/p ... up3e4.html

This second link is what I want it to look like:

http://www.theelevengroup.com/mockups/11menu.jpg

And here is how it looks when I attempt it!

http://www.theelevengroup.com/mockups/p ... 4argh.html

The image files are included as .zip files. There are links on each of the sites. NB: both sites use the same image files.

At one point I had it in a <div> (actually as a layer in Dreamweaver) and it almost worked...by 'almost' I actually mean 'not really but it was slightly better than before'. Then I read something about the menu not liking <div> and I shot steam out my ears like a cartoon character and went to see if I had any icecream in the house

<sigh>

I have to admit that coding is clearly not my forte, but I'm sure there has to be a way to get this to work. Could it be because I'm using a demo? Will it work when I purchase the full version?

Please help!

Thanking you in advance,

Nunzilla

[John]

Could it be because I'm using a demo? Will it work when I purchase the full version?

No, that would have nothing to do with any performance issues with the menu. Nothing is disabled in the demo version.

We'll be taking a look.

[John]

OK, there's a get started version at http://www.west.asu.edu/sa/testsite/index4.htm. Changes were made to both the source and _data. Feel free to grab the files, but please let me know when you're done.

Basically the menu was going right where you told it to...

Code: Select all

left=10;
top=10;

That was changed, in addition to fontsize= and pt to px. Also moved your JS menu calls to the proper place (first thing after body). You'll still need to play with where you want the subs to open.

[Ruth]

Hi Nunzilla,

You have one other choice if the menu absolutely must always stay in that circle no matter where the table goes, for example, if the resolution is changed that will change the positions. If that is what you have to have, then you can put the main menu into the table. If that is what you want, I can put up a demo for you which I made thanks to John having already done all the hard work. I tested in IE, Netscape and Firefox and it looks the same in all of those.

Ruth

[nunzilla]

Hi,

My apologies for the late response: I've been ill.

I had a look at the code John has put online for me. Many thanks for that, John Thanks also to Ruth for having a look too.

I took the code John did and re-applied it using the tutorial on putting the main menu in a table as per the instructions here:
http://milonic.com/tablemenu.php

I finally got the positioning it to work! Oh rapture! Thanks so much! It’s a little wacky in Firefox (or at least the one I tested it on) but that's probably me. I'll sort that out soon enough.

Once I stopped hopping from foot to foot with glee about the overall positioning, I re-positioned the submenus to appear on the left...well, almost. The submenu positioning seems to be staggered. I know it must have something to do with the offsets as it appears to relate to how long my text is.

I don't think I've completely got my head around this, but is there a way to position a submenu relative to the beginning of the text, not the end for the main menu headers and the end of the text, not the beginning for the submenu headers? That way I can talk on to my heart's content in the menus and still have a submenu appear on the left and the same distance from the purple median line as all the other menus?

Please see my links as I don't think I'm explaining this right. Btw, I'm testing this in IE 6.0.2900 in XPsp2 and Firefox 1.0.4. on the same OS. I haven't tested it in Netscape nor anything else.

http://www.theelevengroup.com/mockups/new220505/

Please mouse over the menu 'who are we?'
The positioning of 'Penni Fisher' from 'Who are we' illustrates roughly how far I'd like the sub menus to be from the purple median line.
The other submenus 'eleven's opinion' and 'eleven ways' are all over the place as I simply don't know how to position them to have their ends closest to the median line automatically hit the same mark as the first sub menu. I know the values in the menu_data file are not uniform, but even when they were, I had this problem.

http://www.theelevengroup.com/mockups/n ... newtxt.htm

The above link shows the first submenu (who are we?) with different text. As you can see, it's moved about a lot and yet I haven't changed the value of how far I want it to be from the median line.

Is there a piece of code that can fix this problem automatically or do I have to manually alter the code each time a new body of text is entered into the submenu? I'd like to make this site as easy to update as possible for the people I'm making it for.

To make matters even more complicated, the sub menu stemming from eleven's opinion>policies> (the budget leak) is way off in the distance when I display it in IE or Firefox. Can I control the offset of a sub-sub menu with any accuracy as well or will I have to treat it on a case-to case basis, depending on the text length?

With thanks,

Nunzilla

PS. When I purchase the licensed version of the menu, do I need to re-enter all my code into the licensed version or is it just a matter of entering a serial or something similar?

PPS. I just read something about using graphics with text in them to alleviate the cross browser problem associated with text sizes (and therefore my positioning of the menu within the circle).

Please see viewtopic.php?t=5989 - Ruth's reply to galcott.

Will that also fix the problem with the submenus or just make me a sad panda?

Sorry to ramble on. If none of this makes sense, I'm happy to clarify anything. I'm still sick and having to eat cold and flu medication like its Pez, so I'd be surprised if anything I've asked makes sense

Thanks again - Nunzilla

[Ruth]

Hi Nunzilla,

Most of the problem has to do with the fact that you used what John had up, but then tried to put the menu in the table but didn't use the position="relative"; which is necessary. As to using images to override the font size problems, that's an option, but is a problem for anyone who needs to have larger type. Usually I suggest avoiding that, unless you are going to use images with a pretty large font on it. That will not change the position of the submenus. One thing I noticed you had an alpha code set in the oncolor, that throws an error when you try to mouseover a submenu item. If you really want to have the on submenus look different onmosueover, you could use bgimages in the items, making the overbgimage a semi-transparent one. That filter code goes in the overfilter and outfilter and is only seen in Internet Explorer. If you want to see other settings for that you can check out the IE FILTERS Demoon the demo site.


Ruth

[nunzilla]

Hi Ruth,

Thankyou so much for all your hard work!!

The link you put online to no longer works... I'm gathering it's been taken off the site. May I please have the link re-instated so I can grab the files? I'll be much faster this time. Promise.

Once again, thanks a lot

Nunzilla.

[Ruth]

It would help if I didn't reverse the file name! Sorry, about that. LINK REMOVED: by ruth

Ruth

[nunzilla]

Don't worry, I do that sort of thing all the time - typos are my speciatly Thanks so much for that! You've really helped me and managed to understand what on earth I was trying to get at in my last post, as jumbled as it was

I'll have a good look at the files so I can fully understand what you've done. That way I won't be bouncing about in and out of forums and annoying all you guys.

Will keep you posted on the progress. I'm now a fully fledged, paid-up user <Nunzie proudly attaches a little medal to her chest - accidentally sticks self with pin> and I'm really very happy with the product. I'm sure that once I get all this ironed out, my client will be as well.

Thankye muchly,

Nunzilla