Dream-perturbing doubts with my drop down menu - html

I tried to do a dropdown menu, but I have a lot of questions and it seems I am doing all wrong. Some of the major question that are perturbing my dreams are:
Should I use list-style:none; on ULs or LIs (or both)?
Is it better to put background-color and border on As or LIs?
Should the LIs that are inside the absolute floating UL have
float:left; or position:relative;?
The code I am using seems of work, but my biggest fear is that I am writing unnecessary lines or even bad coding.
Please help.
The CSS I am using:
*{
padding:0;
margin:0;
}
#menu{
margin:0 auto;
width:800px;
background:#999;
border:1px solid #777;
}
#menu ul{
list-style:none;
border-right:1px solid #aeaeae;
/*Not sure about this V*/
position:relative;
float:left;
}
#menu li ul{
font-weight:normal;
display:none;
position:absolute;
border:1px solid #777;
width:200px;
/*Not sure about this V*/
float:none;
margin-left:-2px;
}
#menu li{
display:block;
position:relative;
float:left;
background:#999;
border-right:1px solid #777;
border-left:1px solid #aeaeae;
}
#menu li li{
float:none;
background:#eaeaea;
border:0;
border-top:1px solid #666;
}
#menu li:hover{
background:#a6a6a6;
}
#menu li li:hover{
background:#f5f5f5;
}
#menu a{
display:block;
text-decoration:none;
color:#fff;
padding:5px 15px;
}
#menu li ul a{
color:#333;
}
#menu a:hover{
color:#fff;
}
#menu li ul a:hover{
color:red;
}
#menu li li:first-child{
border-top:0;
}
.clear{
clear:both;
font-size:0;
line-height:0;
}
The HTML structure is:
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li>About Us</li>
<li>Products
<li>Drop Down
<ul>
<li>DD Item</li>
<li>Another One</li>
<li>Last DD Item</li>
</ul><div class="clear"></div>
</li>
</ul><div class="clear"></div>
</div>
I am using JQuery to show/hide the menu with:
$('#menu ul li').hover(function(){$('ul',this).slideDown(100);},
function(){$('ul',this).slideUp(100);});
The code I used is strongly modified, but taken from here

Your dreams are probably safe. That is, your CSS looks pretty good overall. You may want to consider using Twitter Bootstrap for some of what you're doing (awesome drop-downs), but you can certainly roll-your-own.
To answer your questions:
Should I use list-style:none; on ULs or LIs (or both)?
Just on ul's.
Is it better to put background-color and border on As or LIs?
Put them on the li elements.
Should the LIs that are inside the absolute floating UL have float:left; or position:relative;?
These accomplish entirely different things. Floating left should be sufficient, but you may want to do both.
You should also refactor your jQuery code, despite the fact that it works:
$("#menu ul li").hover(
function () {
$(this).children("ul").slideDown(100);
},
function () {
$(this).children("ul").slideUp(100);
}
);

Related

Centering a logo in a dropdown menu

My final goal is to create what you see in image B. Note: the menu bar must be centered on the page. I did create B by setting the vertical-align on the image to middle. However, as a result of doing this my dropdown menu is slightly separated from the main header. Therefore, i cannot select the sub-menu items when i move my mouse cursor down. Any ideas on making this work ? Thanks Jillian
<style>
#nav{
border:1px solid #ccc;
border-width:1px 0;
list-style:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
text-align:center;
}
#nav li{
position:relative;
display:inline;
}
#nav a{
display:inline-block;
padding:10px;
}
#nav ul{
position:absolute;
/*top:100%; Uncommenting this makes the dropdowns work in IE7 but looks a little worse in all other browsers. Your call. */
left:-9999px;
margin:0;
padding:0;
text-align:left;
}
#nav ul li{
display:block;
}
#nav li:hover ul{
left:0;
}
#nav li:hover a{
text-decoration:underline;
background:#f1f1f1;
}
#nav li:hover ul a{
text-decoration:none;
background:none;
}
#nav li:hover ul a:hover{
text-decoration:underline;
background:#f1f1f1;
}
#nav ul a{
white-space:nowrap;
display:block;
border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;
}
a{
color:#c00;
text-decoration:none;
font-weight:bold;
}
a:hover{
text-decoration:underline;
background:#f1f1f1;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<ul id="nav">
<li>Item one</li>
<li>Item two
<ul>
<li>Sub1</li>
<li>Sub2</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="double-line">
<img style="vertical-align:middle" src="img/logo_large.png" alt="logo" /></li>
<li>The Fourth</li>
<li>Last</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
You do something like,
#nav ul{
background:url('img/logo_large.png') no-repeat center center;
/* more CSS here */
}
unless you have to use it as a link. Then consider position:absolute; for the image with #nav ul being position:relative;, and use a floating layout for the other links with a z-index to overlap where they should hang over.
You can just offset the submenu up to cover the logo height.
Here is a JSfiddle using the google logo and altering the submenu style by adding this:
#nav ul {
top: 20px;
}
Try to insert in CSS line-height: X px; (for example, parent div height) in each menu title (Item one, Item two, The Fourth, etc.)

Chrome and Safari ignoring (?) position:absolute

Have a look at http://www.habitatlandscape.co.uk/
In Firefox and even Internet Explorer (!!!) the pop-up menus appear perfectly, vertically centered in the white strip, and always starting on the far-left-hand-side.
In Chrome, the menus start horizontally under the parent li, and are not centered vertically. I can fix the vertical alignment by targetting webkit with a different position, but I can't fix the horizontal alignment.
Why is Webkit ignoring position:absolute;left:0;?
CSS:
#header #menu
{
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#header #menu ul
{
list-style-type:none;
margin:0;
padding:0;
margin-top:28px;
height:24px;
}
#header #menu ul li
{
display:inline;
position:relative;
}
#header #menu ul li a
{
display:block;
float:left;
padding:7px;
padding-bottom:3px;
background:#fff;
margin-right:5px;
text-decoration:none;
-webkit-border-top-left-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-top-right-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius-topleft: 5px;
-moz-border-radius-topright: 5px;
border-top-left-radius: 5px;
border-top-right-radius: 5px;
font-family:'museo', serif;
font-size:12px;
text-transform:uppercase;
color:#fff;
font-weight:bold;
padding-left:12px;
padding-right:12px;
background:#01973D;
position:relative;
z-index:2;
}
#header #menu ul li:hover a
{
background:#00BB4A;
}
#header #menu ul li ul
{
clear:both;
display:none;
position:absolute;
top:39px;
width:700px;
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#header #menu ul li ul li
{
display:block;
}
#header #menu ul li ul li a
{
background:#fff !important;
color:#000;
font-weight:normal;
padding:7px;
padding-left:11px;
color:#01973D;
padding-top:10px;
margin:0;
float:left;
}
#header #menu ul li ul li a:hover
{
color:#000;
}
#header #menu ul li:hover ul
{
display:block;
}
HTML (CMS-generated):
<div id="menu">
<ul>
<li class="parent"><a class="parent" href="http://www.habitatlandscape.co.uk/about-us/"><span>About Us</span></a>
<ul>
<li><span>Company History</span></li>
<li><span>Meet The Team</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="parent"><a class="menuactive parent" href="http://www.habitatlandscape.co.uk/portfolio/"><span>Portfolio</span></a>
<ul>
<li><span>View before, during and after photos from recent projects</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="parent"><a class="parent" href="http://www.habitatlandscape.co.uk/services/"><span>Services</span></a>
<ul>
<li><span>Design</span></li>
<li><span>Patios</span></li>
<li><span>Decking</span></li>
<li><span>Turf</span></li>
<li><span>Ponds</span></li>
<li><span>Driveways</span></li>
<li><span>Fencing</span></li>
<li><span>Electrics</span></li>
<li><span>Structures</span></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
// etc
</div>
You've created a mess by display:inline-ing your <li> elements but display:block-ing your <a> elements.
In HTML, it's invalid to nest a block-level element in an inline element:
<span><div>FAIL</div></span>
When you do something like this, you're going to have cross-browser problems. The same goes if you use CSS to change the display property:
<div style="diplay:inline"><span style="display:block">STILL A FAIL</span></div>
Which is what you've done:
#header #menu ul li {
display: inline;
/* ... */
}
#header #menu ul li a {
display:block;
/* ... */
}
That behavior is more or less undefined as far as the specs are concerned (since it makes no sense) so the browser reserves the right to do something insane or ridiculous - which is what you're seeing. It works in Firefox only because you're getting lucky and it works in Internet Explorer because Internet Explorer is inherently insane and ridiculous.
If you want those <li> elements to stack horizontally, float:left them instead of inlining them. Then you can display:block your <a> element without issue. Once that's done you'll still have to switch up which elements are position:relative;-ed, and probably add a left:0 somewhere.
Here's an example of your current issue on jsfiddle, and here's an example of my suggested fix on jsfiddle, which involves positioning the #header #menu ul element relatively instead of the #header #menu ul li.
When I gave the #header #menu ul li a display:inline-block; it fixed it. It also changed the result of the hidden ul's top positioning, which should be 24px to match the height if the button anyways, right?

Cross Browser navigation CSS

I am trying to build a simple CSS only navigation bar for my site. This is it working fine in modern browsers:
And this is my CSS:
#nav{
width:496px;
height:45px;
float:right;
background-color:#bee199;
-moz-border-radius:3px;
-webkit-border-radius:3px;
border-radius:3px;
margin-top:5px;
border:1px solid #a09f9f;
-moz-box-sizing:border-box;
-webkit-box-sizing:border-box;
box-sizing:border-box;
}
#nav ul{
list-style:none;
text-align:center;
}
#nav ul .last{
padding-right:0px;
border-right:none;
}
#nav ul li.navsep{
width:1px;
height:44px;
background-color:#a09f9f;
padding:0;
margin-right:10px;
}
#nav ul li{
width:auto;
height:44px;
display: -moz-inline-stack;
display:inline-block;
padding-right:10px;
margin-bottom:-16px;
}
#nav ul li a{
font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size:20px;
font-weight:400;
text-decoration:none;
color:#434342;
}
HTML:
<div id="nav">
<ul>
<li>Principles</li>
<li class="navsep"><span></span></li>
<li>Our services</li>
<li class="navsep"><span></span></li>
<li>Recent work</li>
<li class="navsep"><span></span></li>
<li class="last">Contact</li>
</ul>
</div>
One of my problems is using negative margins, I really don't want to be using them. But every time I try to use conventional methods the text will not center vertically and it looks like this:
This also happens on older browsers.
Thanks for your time! If you need more information just ask! :)
Omit the <li class="navsep"> and use borders instead.
use lineheight on the li elements.
Instead of using negative margin use line-height, in your case #nav ul li {height: 44px; line-height: 44px;} this will vertical center your text

Vertical align in CSS3

I'am trying to create a navigation menu with a sub menu, and fiddled with it today.
But i'am stuck at getting the sub menu of the parent menu to align it's links.
my HTML
<!-- navigation menu -->
<div class="MenuContainer">
<ul class="menu">
<li>Home</li>
<li>About</li>
<li>
Projects
<ul class="sub">
<li>Project1</li>
<li>Project2</li>
<li>Project3</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
my CSS
.MenuContainer {
width:100%;
height:50px;
border:1px solid;
position:relative;
}
ul {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
/*Main menu*/
li.menu {
height:50px;
float:left;
}
ul.menu li {
list-style:none;
float:left;
height:49px;
text-align:center;
}
ul.menu li a {
display:block;
padding:0 20px;
text-align:center;
font-size:17px;
line-height:49px;
text-decoration:none;
color:#5d5d5d;
}
ul.menu li:hover > a {
color:#fdfdfd;
}
ul.menu li:hover > ul {
display:block;
}
/*sub menu*/
li.sub {
height:40px;
float:left;
}
ul.sub li {
list-style:none;
float:left;
height:39px;
text-align:center;
}
ul.sub li a {
display:block;
padding:0 20px;
text-align:center;
font-size:17px;
line-height:39px;
text-decoration:none;
color:#5d5d5d;
}
If anyone can tell me where i went wrong please do. First time trying to create one from scratch.
Also if anyone know a good HTML5 / CSS3 forum / forums please don't hesitate to post a link. I have tried to find some but all are not serious or no active users.
Also this is my first post at stackoverflow so if i do a beginners mistake here, please just point it out.
Thanks on advance.
Hey i think you want this do the sun class position relative and sub ul give position absolute
.sub{
position:absolute;
}
ul.menu li {
position:relative;
}
Live demo http://jsfiddle.net/HVk4G/
Vertical menu Updated demo http://jsfiddle.net/HVk4G/1/

Hover is not working when creating menu in CSS

I'm using CSS for creating a dropdown menu, but I don't know what's going wrong with it. It's not dropping the sub-menu (un-ordered list in my code)
when hover is fired. I'm badly stuck here, please help me out.
I also tried the visibility property instead of display. I could see only
menu1, menu2, menu3 in browser horizontally and nothing else.
I'm using IE7 on XP SP3.
CSS:
#navMenu ul{
argin:0;
padding:0;
}
#navMenu li {
margin:px;
padding:0;
position:relative;
float:left;
display:block;
list-style:none;
}
#navMenu li a{
text-align:center;
text-decoration:none;
width:100;
display:block;
}
#navMenu ul ul{
display:none;
}
#navMenu ul li : hover ul {
width:auto;
position:absolute;
background:#453DD;
display:block;
}
HTML:
<div id="wrapper" >
<div id="navMenu">
<ul>
<li>menu1
<ul>
<li>menuitem11</li>
<li>menuitem12</li>
<li>menuitem13</li>
<li>menuitem14</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>menu2
<ul>
<li>menuitem11</li>
<li>menuitem12</li>
<li>menuitem13</li>
<li>menuitem14</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>menu3
<ul>
<li>menuitem11</li>
<li>menuitem12</li>
<li>menuitem13</li>
<li>menuitem14</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
JSFiddle
There mustn't any space between the tag name and pseudo class like you must use li:hover instead of li : hover.
Your style has become messed up. It's missing units and/or values. This seems to work. You can see it here.
#navMenu ul{
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
#navMenu li {
margin:0px;
padding:0;
position:relative;
float:left;
display:block;
list-style:none;
}
#navMenu li a{
text-align:center;
text-decoration:none;
width:100px;
display:block;
}
#navMenu ul ul{
display:none;
}
#navMenu ul li:hover ul {
width:auto;
position:absolute;
background:#453DD;
display:block;
}