DHTML Menu Builder can create one or more menu bars from which the menus
will be triggered.
The type of menu bars created by DHTML Menu Builder can be used to
for other functions in addition to displaying menus. That's why
they're known as toolbars.A project configured to use toolbars enables many features in DHTML Menu Builder that are disabled by default.
For example, when enabling toolbar support, DHTML Menu Builder
will let you change the colors, fonts, and images just as you normally do with commands. Notice that in each style dialog there's an
additional tab called "Toolbar Item" which refers to the properties of
the group's appearance when displayed on a toolbar.
This is because DHTML Menu Builder will treat the groups
as commands when it creates the toolbar. A group displayed on a
toolbar is known as a toolbar item.
Enabling Toolbar support
The toolbar items are comprised of the groups that you set up in DHTML Menu Builder. Therefore, you have to create at least some of the groups prior to setting up the toolbar. Once the groups are created (at least by filling in the captions), you can configure the toolbar.
To configure DHTML Menu Builder so it creates a toolbar for you,
click the Tools menu and select
Toolbars Editor. Notice that, by default, DHTML Menu Builder will always create a Default toolbar tab. If you need more toolbars simply create them by clicking Add Toolbar ( ).
You can delete a toolbar using Delete Toolbar ( )
and rename a toolbar clicking Rename Toolbar ( ).
You can give your toolbars any name as this name is used only for your
reference and does not affect the menus in any way.
Toolbars can also be created, renamed and deleted from the
Map view.
To create a new toolbar, click the Menu
menu and select the Add Toolbar option.
To rename it or delete it use the options from the
Edit menu. Shortcuts that apply to groups and commands also
apply to the toolbar items in the Map view, so for example, you
could press the F2 key to rename a toolbar. Notice that the names of
the toolbar are just for your reference; they have no effect over
the generated menus.
Stacking Multiple Toolbars
The order in which the toolbars appears on the Map view
determines their Z order. Toolbars that are listed first have a
lower Z order while toolbars appearing at the end of the list have a
higher Z order. This useful because if you have toolbars that are
stacked one above the other, those with a higher Z order will appear
above those with a lower Z order. The Z order can be easily changes
by using the Up ( )
and Down ( )
buttons from the toolbar.
Configuring the Toolbars
You can select which groups
will be displayed in a toolbar and in
which order.
To add groups to the selected toolbar click Add Group ( ).
To remove a group from the toolbar, first select it and then click
Delete Groups ( ).
When creating a toolbar that will be rendered horizontally, the
first group in the list will be the group in the leftmost position.
When creating a toolbar that will be rendered vertically, the
first group in the list will be the group in the topmost position.
You can also add groups from the Map view: to add a new group to
a toolbar, simply select the toolbar item on the Map view (or any
other element that belongs to the desired toolbar) and select the
Add Group option from the Menu
menu. Then you can also use the Up ( )
and Down ( )
buttons to re-arrange your groups' order. The same applies to the
commands: you can move commands up and down to change their order.
Both groups and commands can also be dragged and dropped. You can
drag & drop groups between toolbars and you can drag & drop commands
between groups. While dragging and dropping these items you can
control the desired results by holding a combination of keys so
instead of moving you the items are actually copied (cloned). For
more information see the Enhanced
Map View section.
Groups that have no commands can also be included in the toolbar.
These kinds of groups, as well as those containing commands, can be
used to open pages or execute a script when clicked. This is very useful in creating groups that do not have
any menus but you still need them to be linked to some page.
Adding the Toolbar to your web site
By default, the HotSpots Editor is used to place the menus on the page. However, when
you use the integrated toolbar support, the hotspots are created by
DHTML Menu Builder and there's no need to use the separate HotSpots Editor
unless you also want to use other elements on your page to trigger the
menus.
All you need to do in order to incorporate the toolbar is:
- Compile your project: To generate the
JavaScript files containing all the information for both your
menus and the toolbar.
- Install the Menus: this process adds the necessary code on your pages so when they are loaded by the
browser, they call and prepare (initialize) the toolbar and the
menus. To install the menus, click the Tools
menu and then click Install Menus.
Click here for a complete
description on how the Install Menus tool works.
Using the Toolbar with frames
When you use the toolbar in a web site using frames, DHTML
Menu Builder will automatically display the toolbar in the
Target Document and the menus
will be displayed on all the documents where you have installed
the Frames Loader Code.
For more information see the Working with Frames
section.
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