I’ve successfully created several graphic text buttons with rollover actions as my menu (and hyperlinks to appropriate pages). My only problem now is that the last clicked menu isn’t “sticky”, i.e. it doesn’t show after I’ve selected the menu item/page but rather defaults to the original state when I jump to the page (via hyperlink).
Think of a simple menu with two buttons, “A” and “B”. Both are graphic text only (white text for ‘normal’, blue text for ‘mouse over’ and ‘click’). What happens in this example is: As soon as I hoover over a menu button it goes blue as it also does when I click on it. This is correct behavior for me. However, assume I clicked on “B”. I then jump to page “B” where the “B” doesn’t show in blue but goes white immediately again.
What need I do that the menu selection stays (blue text in the above example) until I select another menu item?
If you use the CSS Menus action for your navigation there is an option to Highlight Current Page
If you are just doing this with straightforward rollovers then there is no option for this effect. Remember when you go to another page it is a different iteration of the rollover and is not linked dynamically to the previous page.
The effect can be added using CSS and extended coding but the CSS Menu action wraps it all up for you and makes it a no-brainer.
the last clicked menu […] defaults to the original state when I
jump to the page (via hyperlink).
When you get to the destination page the buttons you see are a different set; they aren’t the ones you just clicked. The
click-state of the ones you just used aren’t connected to the ones on
the new page. Welcome to designing for the World Wide Web.
The simple solution is to set the ‘normal’ state for that button to
be the same as the click state for the equivalent button on the
previous page. Then it will look just as if the click state is
preserved.
These particular screencasts (the Freeway Moments by Paul Dunning) are
hosted on iTunes, so you’ll have to download them from there. I can’t
see any way to work around the need for iTunes to do that part, but
you can play them in anything you like once you download them.
Walter
On May 17, 2010, at 4:44 PM, Robert B wrote:
Dave, how can I get those screen casts to play in QT? I don’t use
iTunes.
Here’s what I do when I use Rollover for my Page Link buttons. I create 3 copies of each button, one for Normal, one for Mouseover and one for Click. Group them, then apply the Rollover action. In the Actions pallette, the Rollover action has 2 tabs: Images and Parameters. Select Images.
For a normal button you have image1 ticked for Normal, image2 ticked for Mouseover and image3 ticked for Click.
To make the button for the page you’re on highlighted all the time, just tick image3 for Normal, Mouseover and Click.
Sometime around 18/5/10 (at 09:04 -0400) Paul Hibbert said:
For a normal button you have image1 ticked for Normal, image2 ticked
for Mouseover and image3 ticked for Click.
To make the button for the page you’re on highlighted all the time,
just tick image3 for Normal, Mouseover and Click.
Exactly. So, for example, on the Contact page, just set the Contact
button’s Normal state to be the same as the Click state it uses on
other pages. It is actually so simple that it is really cunning…
I’ve tried to get this working as you describe and fail for some reason. May I kindly ask you to have a look at the following picture that describes in detail what I want to achieve?
I think the problem is that you think this happens automatically, but it has to be done manually. At least that’s how I’ve done it.
You should have a master page with the navigation set up as in your first picture. The settings in the Action are per page, so nothing carries over to the other pages.
So, on each page you make the click state available by turning the other states off. So on the News page, make the News button just the click state. On the Contact page, make the Contact button just the click state. If you’re on the page, you won’t be clicking on the button for that page, so it doesn’t need to be “live”.
I’ve reproduced your buttons and I’ve made them do what you want. The rollover thing is one thing, but keeping the button blue until another one is clicked is not done with the ticks.
The rollover part you have OK on your example sheet.
Now go to the ‘Parameters’ tab in the Rollover Action pallette. Change ‘Restore’ to ‘Sticky’. Job done.
Paul, I’ve tried your suggestion and sticky works as long as I don’t move over any other button after clicking one, i.e. moving the mouse straight down for example. Otherwise the next mouseover is done… So it doesn’t solve my problem.
Bob, I’ll try your solution now. Do I simply have to uncheck “Use Master Settings” on each page and then do what you suggest? I’ll try it…
I think you just make sure the only think unchecked is Normal in the Action on the buttons you want to looked active.
But, this has to be done on each page.
I figured it out and got it working! For each button on it’s corresponding page I:
unchecked the normal state
set the click state to normal
So, in my example (I had posted earlier) I only set BContactM to mouseover and BContactC to normal state for the button “Contact” on the page “Contact”.
Hurrah! Thank you all very much! I appreciate your kind help.
