Enhanced Map View

DHTML Menu Builder supports creating and implementing multiple toolbars within the same project and even the same web page.

As of version 4.0, the Toolbars Editor has been redesigned and the Map View has been enhanced to accommodate this feature. With the new Map View, you can manage and organize the menu items under multiple-toolbars projects.

To work in this mode you must select the Map tab from the mode tabs chooser.

As you can see on the image, the Map View lets you see the toolbars as well as the groups included in these toolbars. There is also a (NoToolbar) item. Groups created in this section are groups that do not belong to any toolbar. With DHTML Menu Builder you can create a muti-purpose project where you can have some groups displayed under a toolbar and others attached to hotspots. These groups that are not included in any toolbar are displayed under the (No Toolbar) item.

You can also create groups directly under a specific toolbar or you can even drag and drop items to move them from one toolbar to the other without having to use the Toolbars Editor dialog. 

 


While working in map view
There're many tasks that can be performed directly from the Map View interface. Once you have reviewed all the possible options that are available while working on this mode you will be able to work faster and more efficient.

Creating Items

  • Toolbars: click Menu->Add Toolbar
  • Groups: Select the toolbar where you want to create the group and click Menu->Add Group
  • Commands: Select the group where you want to create the command and click Menu->Add Command

Creating SubMenus

To create a submenu simply select a command and click Menu->Add SubGroup
DHTML Menu Builder will automatically set the Over/Cascading mode for the command and will cerate a group for you so you can start adding the commands for the new submenu.

Deleting Items

To delete an item simply select the item that you want to delete and press the DEL key on your keyboard or click Menu->Delete
Notice that while in Map View DHTML Menu Builder will automatically perform some additional tasks when:

  • Deleting a toolbar: All the groups that were attached to the deleted toolbar will be automatically moved to the (NoToolbar) section
  • Deleting a group: All the commands that belonged to group will be deleted automatically
  • Deleting a submenu: The command that displayed the submenu will be automatically configured to do nothing when the mouse is moved over it

Renaming Items

  • Notice that after creating a new item the Map View will auto-select it and wait for you to give it a caption. To do so, simply write the caption for the newly created item and press the ENTER key when done.
  • Once an item has been created, to rename it, simply select the item and press the F2 key or click Edit->Rename
  • When renaming an item you're actually changing the caption of the item. If you would like to change the items' name (this only applies to groups and commands) then start renaming the item by clicking Menu->Rename and enclose the item's name in brackets.

Rearranging the menu items

The order in which the toolbars, the groups and commands appear in the Map View affects your project. Rearranging the menu items in the Map View is a very easy task:

  • To move toolbars, groups and commands up and down simply use the Up () and Down () buttons from the toolbar.
  • Groups and commands can be dragged and dropped while the Map View. This way you can easily move or copy group from one toolbar to another or you can move or copy a command from one group to another. While dragging and dropping a command hold down the ALT key to change the default move action to copy.

The smart Context Menu

The Map View features a smart context menu which automatically modifies itself to display only the most commonly used options based on the selected item.
This is a very powerful feature that can save a lot of time when creating and working with a project because instead of having to search through the menus or the toolbars for a specific option you just have to right click an item from the Map View and the context menu will be customized to provide you with the most useful and most frequently used set of options.


The menu items' colors and icons

Each items in the Map View is represented by its caption and an icon.

  • This is the icon used to represent toolbars
  • This is the icon used to represent toolbar items
  • This is the icon used to represent groups
  • This is the icon used to represent commands
  • This is the icon used to represent separators

The icon for toolbar items, groups and commands have several variations used to represent the events used by the item. For example, a command icon with a "0" and arrow () means that the over event for the item has been configured to display a submenu. A command icon with a "1" () means that the click event has been configured to open a page when clicked (link).

Each menu item is also represented using a different set of colors and styles. For example, toolbars, toolbar items and groups are displayed using bold text; items with broken links are displayed using a red color, etcetera.
To customize how the different items are displayed, use the Edit->Preferences->Display dialog.