Can you go to the Edit>Resources dialog, turn on Full Path in the Display option, make the dialog as wide as possible, make the File column as wide as possible and take a screenshot of it for me please?
Yes indeed. Delta Dave was right, at least as far as a background goes. Using the transparent GIF worked. I edited all the HTML files with TextWrangler as described above and my submenus work as expected in IE.
Are there any further thoughts about why the CSS Menu Action is broken in my FW file?
Well, I can, and will if necessary, Joe. But for now, using the option+File > Publish Site command forced the CSS Menu Action to create a new transparent GIF (“transparenta.gif”) and link to it […background:url(‘…/Resources/transparenta.gif’)…]
Neither transparent.gif nor the new transparenta.gif show up in the Resources List. So you wouldn’t see their path, anyhow. Is that what you were trying to test?
Go figger why the Action was so picky about transparent.gif! In any event you have somehow solved my problem, and I can get some sleep tonight! Thanks a million for being so patient.
Not sure what Flash usage has to do with my CSS Menu problems, but thanks for sharing your concerns about it.
So while we’re on the subject of graphic text, let’s remember that the attempt to use the Caxton Action on my CSS Menus --so that I didn’t have to use graphic text-- may have been the cause of the transparent GIF being lost or messed up.
Just in case some others are still working with versions of Freeway prior to 5.5, here is what seems like the final resolution to my original problem.
DeltaDave was right all along. IE requires a background for CSS submenus. Without one, the submenus disappear when moused over. This is a completely non-standard and known problem, but it’s just what it is.
In order to create a working kludge to solve this, the Freeway CSS Menu Action knows to include a hidden-from-the-user/you-don’t-know-Freeway-is-doing-it transparent GIF as background for submenus that have no other background (color or image) defined.
OK, so far, so good. However, according to FW tech support, FW prior to 5.5 “has a problem with Actions accessing Resources from Master Pages.” In practice, and specifically in my case, FW was refusing to include the proper URL/location of the transparent GIF in the CSS code for the submenus.
Code that should have read
#fwNav1 .fwNavItem .sub .fwNavItem:hover > span a, #fwNav1 .fwNavItem .sub .fwNavItem:hover > a { color:#733038; text-decoration:none; background:url(‘../Resources/transparenta.gif’) repeat; }
was reading
#fwNav1 .fwNavItem .sub .fwNavItem:hover > span a, #fwNav1 .fwNavItem .sub .fwNavItem:hover > a { color:#733038; text-decoration:none; background:url(‘’) repeat; }
Note the lack of a path in the background:url(‘’) declaration. Blah.
The suggestion was to upgrade my FW, which I cannot yet due to old Mac OS 10.4. Hoping to upgrade computer and software soon.
The FW workaround was to cut the CSS menu item from the Master Page and paste it on all Pages. The CSS Menu Action then worked as expected! Not a big deal for me, since the site has only about eight pages. Your milage may vary. Thank you for your support.