14 DAY TRIAL // Presently, websites look more and more professional and complex. A big contribution to this trend is the webpage database integration and advanced programming knowledge that's used to manage all the information stored on the server, but also to create nice visual effects.
If you're part of the group that has no clue what Java or Flash is about, but want to make your website feel friendlier and give it a nicer look, you don't need to panic, because there are applications that can do all the hard core programming work for you.
Working with the program
DHTML Menu Builder is such a program that will help you create nice menus with dropdown submenus, and more.
When running it, you will get the friendly interface that will drastically speedup the menu building process. You need no programming knowledge, and all you have to do is come up with the design for your website's menu.
Also, if you run out of ideas, the program has many presets that you can choose from; these are both for learning purposes (you get a Windows 98 like menu, MAC OS menu, Apple and Aqua buttons) but also templates that you can use for your own webpage (simple, advanced, professional, effects and image toolbars).
The featured examples provide enough support for you to learn from, and if you won't understand much from using them, you can use the help menu. It's well structured and gives you consistent information so that you can understand exactly how the program works.
When creating a menu with submenus, you have to keep in mind the three main types of components you can use: groups, commands and separators.
The group is more of a modeling instrument that's used to hold the commands and separators.
The commands are, in fact, your menu items (the basic concept of the program). For a command you either assign a hyperlink that will open a page in your website, or you can add a group. When doing this, the group will have to be filled up with other commands (which are, in this case, sub-sub-menu items).
You can easily switch between a horizontal and a vertical layout of your commands, and also you can rearrange them in your menu by moving them up, down, adding or deleting some of them.
This program isn't just a simple menu editor that will create menus like a bunch of categories arranged in a hierarchical order. You can add and edit advanced effects for the mouse over, click, double click actions such ash drop shadow and transparency. For each group you can edit the color, font, cursor, image, margins or selection effects. I like the fact that the program has a few samples included, but also, it allows you to import your own components, so that you can really call it YOUR menu.
Also, for the whole project, you can add special unfolding effects that will make it more animated. There are four main categories that you can work with: bidirectional, horizontal, vertical or random effect type. For each of these, you can select one of the seventeen available DX effects, each one having customizable settings, so that you can get a wide variety of results.
You also get a live preview option that you can activate, so that whenever you're performing an operation, you'll know what the result is without having to save the project and open your webpage.
The program offers you the chance to edit and attach hotspots to your groups (these components help integrate your menu in the webpage).
Also, if you would like to adjust some fine details about your menu, you can use the AddInn editor (but this requires some programming knowledge.)
The Good
DHTML Menu Builder is a nice application for dropdown menu creations. You can generate complex effects menus in just a few minutes, with no programming knowledge. The interface is simple and easy to work with, with a toolbar that has all the functions at your ease. If you are however a more advanced user, you can improve the code that the program generates, so that it suits you better.
The Bad
For beginner users the program might be a bit mind dazzling at first, but once you've given it a run, things do become easier. This is only a demo version, and the links that you set up for your commands don't work. In order to get the full version license you have to pay $65 (beauty doesn't come cheap, one might say.)
The Truth
This is a fun program to work with. The interface is friendly, and allows you to master its commands right after a few clicks. And, if that doesn't happen, the help menu steps in the scene and clears out every issue. The features and included sample projects give you a head start, and creating dropdown (or to any direction, for that matter) menus becomes as easy as eating pie.
Check out the screenshots below to get a glance at the program in action:
