how do you make a sliding drop down menu?

[Jas123]

Such as on some event, a menu drops down with the same effects as pulling down a window shade.



I am also wondering how do you make an image/object follow your mouse cursor?

 

[Dana Beck]

Drop Down Menu Tutorial

Go here for a free tutorial on dropdown menus using css and javascript. They have everything.

 

[bootedbear]

A JavaScript library such as jQuery would make this almost trivial. Check out the slideDown() method (and of course there's a corresponding slideUp() method).

As for making an item follow the cursor, establish a mousemove event handler on the body and grab the mousemove coordinates. Move the position of the element accordingly (also pretty easy with something like jQuery).

 

[THX1139]

I am also wondering how do you make an image/object follow your mouse cursor?

I wouldn't advise doing that unless you're making some type of game or interaction for a purpose. Having stuff follow your cursor on a website is annoying and completely out of style. It was all the rage back in the Geocities days and when everyone was first doing Flash based websites. Nowadays... cheesy.

 

[designguy79]

Yeah, having something follow your mouse is annoying.

But... maybe not if you are showing your visitors how much you love having them visit your web site!

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex13/kisstrail.htm

 

[designguy79]

Also, make sure that your menu is backwards compatible with browsers who don't support JavaScript (or for people who leave it turned off by default!). A lot of screen readers, mobile phones and search engine bots don't have a "hover" state.

If you can't make the main menu non-JS compatible, at least make the links available somewhere else on the page (footer, for example).

This is the one I love:

http://www.lwis.net/free-css-drop-down-menu/

I modified it slightly to work with the jQuery plug-in "hover intent" (link below) so that if their mouse "slips" off for a half a second, they don't have start over.

http://cherne.net/brian/resources/jquery.hoverIntent.html

HTH