Good Drop Down Menu

[caspur]

I have a script I can use from an old site I made, but I am wondering if anyone has a really cool drop down menu script.

Here is the scenario. I have made a graphics heavy template featuring stone textures, and angles, mimicing greek architecture. I want to create a drop down menu that will activate on mouseover of 4 seperate images. Image based would be awesome. I also want to ensure there are no adverse effects to the page. You know, exploding or losing space to make room for an image. Let me know if you have done anything like this. I am having no luck in my search.

Thanks,
Caspur

[jscheuer1]

Is this one big image or many small ones? A combination?

How are you organizing the image(s) on the page and coordinating them with links? Are you using image ready slices or an image map? Something else?

How many levels deep must the menu go? Say, you hover or click to get a drop down, does that drop down also need to be able to produce its own drop downs? If so, how many levels deep must this process be able to go?

Do you have other scripts on the page already?

Do you plan to swap images on rollover? If so, are the new images the same size and shape as the ones that they are replacing?

How familiar are you with HTML, CSS and javascript?

[caspur]

Wow, 20 questions... Okay just 12.... Lets see, in order.

1) Many small, 4 images with seperate spacing images
b) each is seperate no combination of images.
2)Only 1 level is necessary for now, although 2 levels would be nice in case the site expands down the road. Okay that answered part b and c too.
3)No other scripts at this time. Others may be added depending on clients desires, but I will probably embed flash files, or Iframes to handle these.
4) I would like to use an image swap, again not necessary, but will be the same size, and only used to highlight the menu image.
5) Very familar with HTML, pretty familar with javascript, but out of practice, and new to CSS.

[jscheuer1]

For one level of drop downs that should be fairly easily integrated to images is AnyLink Drop Down Menu (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/dropmenuindex.htm). The demo uses text triggers but image tags can be easily substituted. If you want to do rollovers on these images, that would need to be added separately. The advantage is that you can drop off of anything anywhere in your layout, especially easy to use if your layout does not include or uses little absolute positioning.

For a multilevel menu with built in configurable rollovers look at HV Menu v5.5 (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/index.htm). You will be more limited as to where the menu can appear. It must be in a line but can be horizontal or vertical. This menu is harder to master but is much more in depth and powerful.

Without seeing your layout, I cannot be more specific but, you could also have a look at the three main indexes of menus here at DD:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/indexc.html

and:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/indexb.html

[caspur]

The Any Link is like what I was planning to use... When I have more time I am going to try to make a menu with a graphic background. These are all great examples. Made my job a lot easier for now since I was getting ready to write this from scratch. Thanks a bunch. I will post when the site is hosted and uploaded so you can see what I am trying to acomplish in the end.

Thanks again,
Caspur

[caspur]

Scratch that, a little tweaking and the Any Link will work great, I don't have time today, but droping in a few extra image tags and this will be exactly what I want. I just put one in, and it looks like it will be perfect.