Chira Sathi

Create a Drop Down Menu In Blogger

If you wish to add the same menu to Blogger Template Designer templates then read this post -> Custom Drop Down menu

Why do you run after scripts such as jquery while you can use simple CSS and HTML to create beautiful drop down menus for your blog. I already shared a list of 30 Navigation menus and now you need to learn how to create a drop down menu in a navigation. I am sharing a simple code here that can be fully customize to make your preferred changes. So lets get to work!

Live Demo

How To Create a Drop Down Menu?

A drop down menu is needed when you have too much content on your blog or you love keeping things organized. To add a drop down menu to your blogger blogs do this:

Go To Blogger > Design > Page Elements
Select a HTML/JavaScript Widget just under the header and paste the following code inside it,

<div id='mbtnavbar'>
      <ul id='mbtnav'>
        <li>
          <a href='#'>Home</a>
        </li>
        <li>
          <a href='#'>About</a>
       </li>
        <li>
          <a href='#'>Contact</a>
        </li>
<li>
           <a href='#'>Sitemap</a>
            <ul>
                <li><a href='#'>Sub Page #1</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Sub Page #2</a></li>
                <li><a href='#'>Sub Page #3</a></li>
              </ul>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>

Replace # with your Page Links and the bolded text with relevant page names. The yellow highlighted code is responsible for the drop down menu. You can copy and paste it under any tab you want just before </li>
To add another tab just paste this code above </ul>

<li>
          <a href='#'>Tab Name</a>
        </li>

3. Now Go to Design > Edit HTML
4. Backup your template and search for ,

]]></b:skin>

3. Just above it paste the code below,

/*----- MBT Drop Down Menu ----*/

#mbtnavbar {
    background: #060505;
    width: 960px;
    color: #FFF;
        margin: 0px;
        padding: 0;
        position: relative;
        border-top:0px solid #960100;
        height:35px;
}

#mbtnav {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#mbtnav ul {
    float: left;
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#mbtnav li {
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
        border-left:1px solid #333;
        border-right:1px solid #333;
        height:35px;
}
#mbtnav li a, #mbtnav li a:link, #mbtnav li a:visited {
    color: #FFF;
    display: block;
   font:normal 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;    margin: 0;
    padding: 9px 12px 10px 12px;
        text-decoration: none;

}
#mbtnav li a:hover, #mbtnav li a:active {
    background: #BF0100;
    color: #FFF;
    display: block;
    text-decoration: none;
        margin: 0;
    padding: 9px 12px 10px 12px;



}
#mbtnav li {
    float: left;
    padding: 0;
}
#mbtnav li ul {
    z-index: 9999;
    position: absolute;
    left: -999em;
    height: auto;
    width: 160px;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}
#mbtnav li ul a {
    width: 140px;
}
#mbtnav li ul ul {
    margin: -25px 0 0 161px;
}
#mbtnav li:hover ul ul, #mbtnav li:hover ul ul ul, #mbtnav li.sfhover ul ul, #mbtnav li.sfhover ul ul ul {
    left: -999em;
}
#mbtnav li:hover ul, #mbtnav li li:hover ul, #mbtnav li li li:hover ul, #mbtnav li.sfhover ul, #mbtnav li li.sfhover ul, #mbtnav li li li.sfhover ul {
    left: auto;
}
#mbtnav li:hover, #mbtnav li.sfhover {
    position: static;
}
#mbtnav li li a, #mbtnav li li a:link, #mbtnav li li a:visited {
    background: #BF0100;
    width: 120px;
    color: #FFF;
    display: block;
    font:normal 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 9px 12px 10px 12px;
        text-decoration: none;
z-index:9999;
border-bottom:1px dotted #333;

}
#mbtnav li li a:hover, #mbtnavli li a:active {
    background: #060505;
    color: #FFF;
    display: block;     margin: 0;
    padding: 9px 12px 10px 12px;
        text-decoration: none;
}

Make these changes:

Change #060505 to change background color of the Main menu
Change the yellow highlighted text to change font color, size and family
Change #BF0100 to change the background of a tab on mouse hover
Change #BF0100 to change the background color of the drop down menu
Change #060505 to change the background color of drop down menu on mouse hover

4. Save your template and you are done!

Visit your Blogs to see a beautiful Navigation menu just below Header. Have Fun! :)
If you have any questions feel free to post them.

How to link to a location in different page

The previous post explain how to link to a location in the same page. In summary, it would be as follows:

The hyperlink HTML is written as

<a href="#key">some text</a>

where key is any text you would like to use as the key, and the location to which you want to link to is preceded by

<a id="key" name="key">>/a>

To link to a location in a different page, it will be almost exactly the same except the #key will now be preceded by the URL of the page to which you want to link to so it now become

<a href="URL#key">some text</a>

For example, the URL of the previous post is http://goo.gl/bB0Iu (permalink shortened using Google URL shortener)

Thus, I write the hyperlink HTML as

<a href="http://goo.gl/bB0Iu#linksamepage">some text</a>

As I have used as the key "#linksamepage".

Try clicking http://goo.gl/bB0Iu#linksamepage and see where it takes you.

How To Add Animated Favicon In Blogger?

Favicon is actually the icon that appears next to your Website URL in the browser address bar. A favicon is usually your blog logo. There are many free services that help to create favicons for you but most of these services use still images. I have used an animated favicon for my blog as you can see in your address bar. It actually consists of a logo and then my blog title as text. The image and text together makes a more beautiful combination. So lets jump at the tutorial and create an attractive cute favicon for your blog,

How To Create Animated Favicons?

Go To favicongenerator
And just at the bottom of the page upload your blog logo or any icon you wish to make as your favicon and also add your blog title as the scrolling text. You will find all the help at favicongenerator

3. Hit the Generate Favicon Button and you will be taken to this page,

Here you will see many images just right click the animated one and save it to your computer.
4. Now upload the image to your Picasa album by reading this post –> Store Animated Images in Blogger and Learn how to get Image URLs

How To Add Your Favicon To Blogger Now?

Go To Blogger > Design > Edit HTML
And Search For <b:skin> and just above it paste the code below,

<link href='ADD YOUR FAVICON LINK HERE' rel='icon' type='image/gif'/>

3. Replace ADD YOUR FAVICON LINK HERE with the image URL of the favicon you saved in Picasa album.
4. Save your template and you are done!
View your blog to see it in action on the address bar and tabs. Hope you liked it! Questions are always welcomed :>>

Sunday, September 25, 2011