First impression. Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second), according to last researches. In the blink of an eye, web surfers make nearly instantaneous judgments of a web site's "visual appeal".
You only get one chance to create a first impression, make it count. A clean, professional, and fast-loading menu bar can ensure that your visitors first impression will be a good one.
Now the menu is search engine friendly! The main disadvantage of flash navigation is now eliminated! Set up navigation as ordinary HTML links. The flash menu file reads these links and draws the visually appealing Vista menu. Everything is easier, more convenient and compact. Any search engine can read this navigation and index all the links.
Download free versions:
First button always link to f-source website
2) Type file name in pop up dialog named "Save flash element". This file will be loaded in all your web pages containing the flash menu.
3) Now you can check the appearance of the Metallic Menu in Dreamweaver by pressing the "Play" button in your " Property inspector" (Ctrl + F3). As you can see the menu already functions with default parameters.
1) The flash object In your Dreamweaver document window when you are in "Design view". Change its size according to your web site design by dragging the sizing handles.
Set parameter "autosize" to "(Yes)" so the menu width will be equal to Flash Object width. Otherwise the menu width depends on the buttons captions.
2) All parameters can be configured in the Dreamweaver "Tag Inspector" (Click on Flash Object, then F9).
- _mainButtonHeight - height of main navigation bar. - _mainButtonTextColor - color of text of main nav bar. - _mainButWidthExt - extended width of each main button. - _mainFont - type of font for main buttons. - _mainFontSize - font size of main navigation bar. - _menuColor - color of main navigation buttons. - _subButtonHeight - height of sub buttons. - _subButtonTextColor - text color of main buttons. - _subFont - type of font of sub buttons. - _subFontSize - font size of sub buttons. - _subMenuColor - color of sub menu buttons. - _subShowSpeed - speed of sub menu appearance. - autosize - autosize to fit to Flash Object width. - _bg_Pic_URL - path to the image file, if you want to place a picture under the menu. - clickSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse clicks on menu . - lightSubs - switcher for submenu design. - mainSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse gets over main buttons . - subSoundURL - path to the mp3 file, if you want to make some sound when mouse gets over sub buttons . - xml_Path - type here the path to XML file with navigation settings, if you prefer XML (cut from a page the DIV with id='menu' and paste it in the XML file).
Setting up the navigation
In "Code View" after <body> tag you can find the code of your menu navigation. It consists of ordinary HTML links and they can be indexed by search engines.
You can add, rename, move elements of this structure and the flash menu will follow your changes. Press F12 to test. (When you press "Play" button the menu appears with default navigation.)
- Button 1 - main button caption, type your name e.g. Home. - http://f-source.com - link of the button, type your link e.g. http://yourdomain.com/ - Add target attribute if you want to specify new window or specific frame name as target for link.
_self specifies the current frame in the current window (the menu use it by default).
_blank specifies a new window.
_parent specifies the parent of the current frame.
_top specifies the top-level frame in the current window.
- If you want to make a button text bold change the bold caption tag to <b>, so the caption <b>Button1</b> should be like this: <b> Button1 <:/b>
An alternative way. Cut the DIV with id='menu' from the page and paste it in XML file. This file is an ordinary text file with .xml extension. It must contain nothing more than DIV with id='menu'.
The parameter xml_Path(in Tag Inspector) can be relative (navigation.xml) or absolute (http://www.yourDomain.com/navigation.xml).
The first method is search engine friendly, but this method gives you ability to make changes only in one file. It is difficult to choose? Do not choose. Combine them. If you will keep search engine friendly navigation setting on the most important pages of your site you will get advantages of both methods.
3) Now you can check the appearance of the Metallic Menu in Dreamweaver by pressing the "Play" button in your " Property inspector" (Ctrl + F3). As you can see the menu already functions with default parameters.
- _mainButtonHeight - height of main navigation bar. 
