Overview
This book is designed to be the start to finish reference for creating powerful and attractive menus and menu-based interfaces for the Internet and other interactive software applications. It begins with determining the structure for a site, and how to organize menu categories, and then moves on to the practical information required to complete the graphics for the menu, and finally onto the actual page. The sections are clearly divided for use as a reference for experienced designers. The book covers the use of major apps such as Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, GoLive, and Photoshop.Synopsis
This is an introductory guide to creating navigation menus for a Web site. Arguing that the trend is toward text menus because of the savings on bandwidth usage, the author provides a greater concentration on text menus than is always the case. Graphic menus and advanced "tricks" are also covered. Menus for wireless devices are given some attention. The CD-ROM contains all of the images, scripts, and sample files contained in the text; a PDF version of the text; and some related sample software programs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewAn entire book on web menus? Heck, yes. Web menus are where the "rubber meets the road." They're where designers must translate all that fancy, high-falutin' talk about navigation and usability into solutions that work. In this book, long-time Webreference.com columnist Wendy Peck shows how.
The emphasis is on the second half of the title: delivering menus with both beauty and intelligence, menus that respect the goals of the site -- and the visitor. You'll get your hands grubby with plenty of examples -- examples using Photoshop/ImageReady, Fireworks and Dreamweaver, Paint Shop Pro, and more.
Peck covers the full gamut of menu design, ranging from simple lightweight text (even creating wireless device menus) all the way up to Flash (very cool, but with a couple of huge limitations). There's extensive practical coverage of Cascading Style Sheets, and of tables -- especially, how to avoid the stupid browser inconsistencies that still plague web designers. Speaking of which, Peck walks you through creating menus with server-side includes, which are cross-browser safe because your server's doing the processing.
The accompanying CD-ROM contains a batch of easy-to-adapt menu templates that put the final polish on a book working web designers will love. (Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jerseybased marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.