Introduction

I got this tutorial request from a reader, if you have any request at all, please contact me, give me some suggestions for the upcoming tutorial! :)

Apparently, I have seen this kind of menu before, in Dragon Interactive . During the implementation, I was having a bit of problem, I thought it's just a simple fadein and fadeout effect, but it actually required a lot of CSS works and the right images.

1. HTML

HTML is very simple, just a list of links. :)

<ul id="navMenu">
	<li><a href="#">Test 1</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Test 2</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Test 3</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Test 4</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Test 5</a></li>
	<li><a href="#">Test 6</a></li>
</ul>

2. CSS

CSS is little bit complicated this time, therefore, I have put a lot of comments. I hope it will explain everything you need to know.

body {
	background:#222;	
}

#navMenu {
	margin:0; 
	padding:0;
	list-style:none;	
	font-family:arial;
	text-align:center;
	line-height:60px;
}

	#navMenu li {
		float:left;	
		
		/* default background image	*/
		background:url(default.jpg) no-repeat center center;	
		
		/* width and height of the menu item */
		width:120px;							
		height:70px;
		
		/* simulate pixel perfect using border */
		border-left:1px solid #111;				
		border-right:1px solid #333;
		border-top:1px solid #555;
		border-bottom:1px solid #333;
		
		/* must set it as relative, because .hover class top and left with absolute position will be positioned according to li.	*/
		position:relative;			
	}

	#navMenu li a {
		/* z-index must be higher than .hover class */
		z-index:20;				
		
		/* display as block and set the height according to the height of the menu to make the whole LI clickable	*/
		display:block;	
		height:70px;
		position:relative;
		color:#777;
	}

 	#navMenu li .hover {
 		/* mouseover image	*/
		background:url(over.jpg) no-repeat center center;		

		/* must be postion absolute 	*/
		position:absolute;	
		
		/*	width, height, left and top to fill the whole LI item	*/
		width:120px;	
		height:70px;
		left:0; 
		top:0;	
		
		/* display under the Anchor tag	*/
		z-index:0;		
		
		/* hide it by default	*/
		display:none;	
	}	

	#navMenu li.selected {
		/* selected image	*/
		background:url(selected.jpg) no-repeat center center;	
	}

3. Javascript

We are using the jQuery built-in fade in and face out effect. First of all, we need to append the div.hover to the list. After that, just a normal mouse hover event with the fadein and fadeout transition.

	
$(document).ready(function () {

	//Append a div with hover class to all the LI
	$('#navMenu li').append('
<\\/div>');


	$('#navMenu li').hover(
		
		//Mouseover, fadeIn the hidden hover class	
		function() {
			
			$(this).children('div').fadeIn('1000');	
		
		}, 
	
		//Mouseout, fadeOut the hover class
		function() {
		
			$(this).children('div').fadeOut('1000');	
		
	}).click (function () {
	
		//Add selected class if user clicked on it
		$(this).addClass('selected');
		
	});

});

Conclusion

This is it, I haven't tested it on IE6 (I don't have one :()... if you having problem with that, please let me know, hopefully I will able to find a way to solve it, or if you can come out with a solution that'd be highly appreaciated! :) Thanks.

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