backimage & overbackimage

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Thursday June 13 2002 - 15:55:54 BST

I am having alittle trouble getting the backimage tag to work correctly, and I've scoured your site, Andy, for examples of how to use it but nowhere could I find an example of background images.

I put the background images tag in like so:
,"Home","show-menu=home", "# backimage=../images/img.png;",,0
and the menu loads fine with the background image intact but when I mouse over it, I get a JScript error and the submenus do not close on the page, they all stay open forever.

Also, I tried overbackimage like so:
,"Home","show-menu=home", "# backimage=../images/img.png; overbackimage=../images/img_over.png;",,0
Again, it works but the menus never close. And I think it has to do with the syntax I am using.

Andy, is there some definitive source or manual (besides the comments) where you can describe how each feature of your menus work? Like, list all the optional tags, what they do, and how to use them using examples.
I know the FAQ is good in some ways, but not everything. I'd love a Milonic DHTML Navigation Menu Manual/Reference that started with the words "Welcome to the wonderful world of DHTML menus...". You would get alot less mail in your inbox, I'm sure! hehe

Here is an example and dialogue on the subject

Poster: wpatters1229
Dated: Thursday June 13 2002 - 16:50:37 BST

In NS 4.75 the fact that there is no background image gives me a green gray background on the main menu instead of a transparent background. I believe the color it is using is the one I use for the divider between menu items.


The other problem that might solve both problems is this; Can I use a background image in the main menu instead of a transparent background or a color? If I can use the same background image for all menus then when the main menu scrolls down as the follow attribute it will go over the top of the graphics I have below the menu.

The problem was down to the border color. With Netscape you need to remove the border color to get full transaprency. The only problem with this is that you then loose the separator bars. The workaround for this is declare a separator color for each menu item.

Can you then declare a background picture for each on the main menu too? I'd think that the text wouldn't show if you did that. I also notice that sometimes it take a second for the background graphics to show on the submenus. I'll try and make them as light (pixels) as possible.

Yes you can try this.

"backimage=img.gif;overbackimage=img_over.gif"

This goes in the URL part of the menu item where all the other settings go.

Hope this helps. I eventually decided not to use background images because they cause a slight delay in the submenus coming up. You first get the text and then a second later you get the images. That acted weird so I went back to color.

I figured out why it wasn't working

Poster: Hergio
Dated: Thursday June 13 2002 - 17:19:01 BST

I just wanted to say I figured out why my background images were not working.

My image file names had underscores in them, as in 'v4_img.gif' and 'v4_img_o.gif' and for some reason the Milonic menu code did not like that. So I took out all the underscores and it works perfectly.

So i sacrifice alittle of my sanity organization in my file naming but get the menu to work, oh well.

Poster: Diakonos
Dated: Friday June 14 2002 - 15:05:51 BST

With the extensive use of CSS in the menu code, the cuplrit is/was the underscores. I know I nearly went crazy trying to figure out why my custom CSS named styles with underscores in them wouldn't work on my pages. Like you, I took out the underscores and, voila'!, everything worked perfectly.

Lesson - don't use underscores in CSS (and now in name Milonic menu entries!)