Dreamweaver

About navigation bars

A navigation bar consists of an image (or set of images) whose display changes in response to user actions. Navigation bars often provide an easy way to move between pages and files on a site.

Navigation bars in a browser

A navigation bar element can have four states:

  • Up: the image that appears when the user hasn’t yet clicked or interacted with the element.

  • Over: the image that appears when the user moves the pointer over the Up image. The element’s appearance changes (for example, it may get lighter) to let users know they can interact with it.

  • Down: the image that appears after the user clicks the element. For example, when a user clicks an element, a new page loads and the navigation bar is still displayed, but the clicked element may be darkened to show that it’s been selected.

  • Over While Down: the image that appears when the user moves the pointer over the Down image after clicking the element. For example, the element may be dimmed. This state gives users a visual clue that they can’t click this element again while they are in this part of the site.

    You don’t have to include navigation bar images for all four of these states; for example, you may just want Up and Down states.

After you create a navigation bar for a document, you can add or remove images from the navigation bar using the Modify Navigation Bar command. Use this command to change an image or set of images, to change which file opens when an element is clicked, to select a different window or frame in which to open a file, and to reorder the images.