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Flat Vertical Menu for Dreamweaver

(Version for Dreamweaver MX 2004)

vertical menu iconFlash menu. One of the main things you must determine when designing a Web site is what kind of navigation/menu system you will use to make it easy for your visitors to find their way around the site. You need an intuitive, professional, and fast-loading menu. SEO friendly and good looking.
Flash technology offer better and richest multimedia experience, but has a serious disadvantage, it's invisible to the major search engines. Is it a reason to reject flash? Not now, we've solved the problem. Our menu is flash + HTML links which are SEO friendly. This Dreamweaver extension provides you with a vertically-oriented, professionally designed flyout vertical menu.


vertical menu is ready

The menu is search engine friendly!
The main disadvantage of flash navigation is now eliminated!

A menu navigation settings is a set of ordinary HTML links in usual form. The flash menu file reads these links and builds the visually appealing Flat Vertical Menu. Everything is easier, more convenient and compact. Any search engine can read this navigation and index all the links.

Download free version and test menu in action!

A free version is a fully functional flash menu, however you cannot edit the first button of a free version. It's a good chance to try before you decide to buy.

Buy the menu to get a menu system without limitations along with our support and assistance. You can get all updates and future versions of the menu extension for free. We can even make a personal upgrade at your request (if you buy multidomain version). Your website can be listed in the "Flat Vertical Menu users".

How to insert the menu?

Don't forget to disable the Active Content Converter first.

1) Top menu "Insert" ==> "Media" ==> "Flat Vertical Menu"

Flat Vertical Menu

2) Type a file name in the pop up dialog window "Save flash element", for example "menu.swf".

play flash menu 3) Now you can check the appearance of the Flat Vertical Menu by pressing the "Play" button in your " Property inspector" (Ctrl + F3). The menu will work with default navigation settings. Test in browser,press F12(Opt+F12 on Mac OSX) to check your navigation settins. To avoid mistakes test your page in browser each time you make changes in the menu code.


The height of the flash object must be equal to the main menu height. There is no need to set it according to submenus height! The height of the flash object will be changed on the fly, when a submenu drops in a browser.

Vertical Menu Configuration.

Important! For local testing you need to set "Always allow" in the online 'Adobe Flash Player Security Setting Manager' (No changes needed if you test on a web server.)

1) The flash object appears in your document window in "Design view". There is no need to change the width of the flash object according to submenus size. You need only to set the flash object height according to the real menu height (which appears in browser) by dragging the sizing handles.

2) All parameters of the menu appearance can be configured in "Tag Inspector" (Click on a Flash Object, then F9).

tag inspector - _mainBorderColor - color of main buttons border.
- _mainButtonHeight - height of the main menu buttons.
- _mainButtonTextColor - main button text color.
- _mainFont - font type for main buttons.
- _mainFontSize - font size for main buttons.
- _mainHighlightColor - color of main button highlighting.
- _menuColor - color of main navigation bar.
- _menuWidth - width of all main buttons.
- _minSubWidth - minimal width for submenus.
- _subButtonHeight - height of submenu buttons.
- _subButtonTextColor - submenu button text color.
- _subFont - font type for the submenu buttons.
- _subFontSize - font size for the submenu buttons.
- _subHighlightColor - color of subbuttons highlighting.
- _subMenuColor - color of the drop submenu.
- bg_Pic_URL - url of picture (jpeg only) to place under the menu.
- clickSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse clicks on menu .
- mainSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse gets over main buttons .
- subSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse gets over sub buttons .
- xml_Path - type here the path to XML file with navigation settings, if you prefer XML (cut from a page the DIV with id='menu' and paste it in the XML file).


Setting up the navigation.

Switch to the "Code View" and find the DIV id="menu". Each line of the DIV code represent a button. Edit links and button labels right here. The menu combine cool Flash navigation with standard HTML links, so your page always remains accessible to search engines - while your site visitors see nothing but Flash brilliance. For you convenience each menu provided with the Navigation Guide. Press Ctrl+Shift+F to open it.
web menu navigation guide Add, rename and move the code lines. To check yourself press F12(Opt+F12 on Mac OSX).
(When you press "Play" button the menu appears with default navigation settings.)

Add the target attribute if you need to set new window or specific frame name as a target for a link.

< div><a href='http://...' target='_blank'>Button</a>< /div>
  • _self - specifies the current frame in the current window (the menu use it by default).
  • _blank - specifies a new window.
  • _parent - specifies the parent of the current frame.
  • _top - specifies the top-level frame in the current window.

If you want to make a button text bold change the bold caption tag to &lt;b&gt;, so the caption <b>Button1</b> should be like this: &lt;b&gt; Button1 &lt:/b&gt;
< div><a href='http://...'>&lt;b&gt;Button&lt;/b&gt;</a>< /div>

You can keep navigation settings in one XML file.

Cut the DIV id='menu' from the page and paste it in XML file. This file is an ordinary text file with .xml extension. It must contain nothing but the DIV id='menu'.
Set a path to your XML in the Tag Inspector.
The parameter xml_Path can be relative (navigation.xml) or absolute
(http://www.yourDomain.com/navigation.xml).

Read detailed instructions here

But remember: XML file is not SEO friendly. It's just one of the ways to keep all navigation settings in one file. As SEO friendly alternative we recommend to use "Library Item" or "Dreamweaver templates".

Learn how to make a Library item

Advanced settings. (Custom Javascript)

A menu button can call any javascript function from a page. Use the link target 'callJSF'

<div><a href='http://...' target='callJSF'>Button3</a></div>
<div><a href='firstURL' target='callJSF'>Button1</a></div>
it will call the function JSF from the page: (located in the DIV id="f-source-menu")
function JSF(url){
   if(url=="firstURL") alert("First button is pressed");
   if(url=="secondURL")alert("Second button is pressed");
}
the function will get in a pressed button link, so it can be used to identify which button is pressed. Here you can insert any code you need, for example the Google Analytics Tracking Code - urchinTracker('url') or AJAX functions.

That's all. Now you can see your results.

vertical menu is ready

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