pop-up menus: followup

[Kevin Justie]

Last week I asked about a way to create a pop-up menu that worked
automatically, without the need for a "Go" button.  Two different methods
for doing this can be found at http://builder.cnet.com/ (select "Menu
Maker" under the "Cool Tools" section) and
http://javascriptsource.com/js/navigation/menu.html.  As Roy pointed out,
however, pop-ups without Go buttons are non-standard in browsers and should
probably be used sparingly if at all (ours are on a heavily used staff-only
page, so user interface issues aren't as critical).

In experimenting with the methods used in the above two pages, plus a
couple of others, I was surprised to find that every one of them failed to
work in at leat one of the browser versions I was testing against (v.4 of
Explorer and Netscape in both Win95 and Mac; v. 3 of Explorer and Netscape
on Mac), and it wasn't always the older browser versions that didn't work
(the two methods listed above worked most consistently).  Have others found
this to be the case with Javascript?

So now, with a pop-up that works in the browsers we use, I've run into a
new problem.  Explorer 4.01 on the Mac and Explorer 4 on Win95 leave the
pop-up showing the previously selected menu item, even when the user
returns to the page containing the pop-up at a later time, making it
impossible for the user to select that item again (because there's no Go
button) without first selecting something else from the pop-up.  (Netscape
4, on Mac and Win95, works correctly, returning the pop-up to its default
item each time the page is displayed.)  Is there a Javascript method to
force a pop-up back to its default item after the user makes a selection
and jumps to another page?

Thanks!



Kevin Justie
Head of Technical and Automated Services
Morton Grove Public Library, Morton Grove, IL
(847) 965-4220
kjustie at mgk.nslsilus.org
http://www.webrary.org/
Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect
official Library policy.

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