A website dropdown menu or navigation header are integral parts of most websites. In the past most web designers use Java script to make pull-down menus. It would take considerable amount of scripting knowledge for designers to get the right design and right options on the navigation menu, and incompatibility problems arise often between different web browsers and Java script versions.
In recent years, more and more websites are using flash menu instead of javascript menu systems. Flash menus provide better browser compatibility — as flash web menu appears and works the same in all browser and operating system conform to the Adobe Flash standard. Base on Adobe’s website information, over 98% of web users now have flash installed with their browser.
A main attracting factor of your website is the website’s appearance and design. Javascript language does not support high quality graphics or animations. In contrast, flash menu is often visually Rich, and comes with high quality graphics and animated effects, which make using a flash header and navigation menu bar much more attractive than a static Javascript menu. In additional, Javascript is disabled by many users for security reasons and popup blocking. Java script menus will be invisible for these users, which leave a blank area on your website and gives visitors a poor impression about your website quality.
Another main advantage of flash menu is its easy maintenance. Most flash menu use a single SWF file and XML file to store its settings, which makes the change to navigation bar very easy. Just upload the new file to your site and refresh are instant. If you use Javascript menu, as the javascript code is repeated to all pages, you would need to edit all pages.
To create a flash menu, you can do it in 2 ways. You can either create the flash menu by yourself using Adobe Flash with acctionscript — which requires techniques such as timeline control, frame labels, button event handlers, plus animation creation skills.
To create flash menu the easy way, you can consider to use a flash menu building software. Most flash menu builder software provide a wizard and easy steps to make flash menu, you can simply choose a ready made design from a collection of flash menu templates, and then fill your menu captions, links, and define sub-menus.
A flash menu creator makes it easy for beginners and starters to build a flash menu navigation bar in minutes with just few mouse clicks. Even highly skilled webmasters might find the flash menu software a great time saver for creating flash dropdown menus.
