Cascading Menus

There are different ways of doing drop-down or pop-up menus, usually with JavaScript, sometimes with Flash. Every technique has different rules for operation.

Me? I like to see all the menu options right up front so I can pick the one that seems most suitable. And I would like to have a consistent way of navigating thoughout the Internet and certainly within any given website. But this is not likely to happen.

If you like this sort of thing then by all means go ahead. If you do go this way then may I suggest some rules:

• There must always be another way of getting to the pages without using JavaScript or Flash. With this demo the first link would take you to the Sitemap from where all the pages can be reached.
• It is nice if the sub-menus stay up even if you take the mouse away. In this case you can click elsewhere on the page to remove the sub-menus.
• You should make sure that the menu items work at every level, so that if you click on any link then you do something useful.
• In the same way, the links on each level are a complete set, and in many cases will repeat the link at the higher level.
• The set of links should include the cop-out - in this case it is back to the Sitemap.

 
Form Select
There is of course a simpler way if your objective is to save space on the page. You can use the normal Form Select feature with a simple JavaScript command to drive it. It tends to come out all in one lump, and the rule generally is not to give people more than seven options on any menu. I have put in some null entries to break it up.