Multilevel Drop Down Navigation Menus: Examples and Tutorials
- Posted in CSS, Javascript
- 48 Comments »
Navigation menus are the most important element one should pay attention when designing a website. Web-developers can create user-friendly horizontal or vertical navigation menus using CSS. Javascript makes it possible to create more interactive, more responsive and more flexible navigation to any website.
This article presents over 25 (horizontal and vertical) multilevel drop down menu built using Javascript and CSS which you can use in your future projects. Also you will find some useful tutorials at the end of this post where you can use to start building your own multilevel navigation menu.
You might check out these posts as well:
Horizontal and vertical drop down menus
1) Drop Down Tabs (5 styles)- Drop Down Tabs is a horizontal CSS tabs menu that supports a second level drop down menu for each of its tabs.
3) Multi-level effect menu- Is a very configurable javascript/css hybrid dropdown menu that is capable of producing simple menus(both horizontal and vertical).
4) FastFind Menu- A jQuery nested menus, based on dynamic “AJAX” responses. The menu can also be dragged/dropped.
5) jQuery SuckerFish- Replicate Suckerfish Menus.
6) Fancy Sliding Tab Menu using script.aculo.us
7) List Based Menu with Images- This is a menu based on an unordered list (<UL><LI>). It makes the menu easy to use and friendly to search engines.
8 ) Slide down menu- A slide menu based on an unordered list (<UL><LI>).
9) Dropdownmenu made with scriptaculous/prototype- A multi level drop down menu.
10) Suckerfish-style menu plugin for jQuery- This demonstrates a two-tiered horizontal menu that displays the path to the current page when the menu is in its idle state.
11) Building a dynamic drop down menu
12) onMenuOpen onMenuCollapse Events- This is a one-time effect that shows off the menu opening up and firing an event, and then finishing with another event.
13) Mootools menu with accordion and effects- This simple menu has a neat effect by hovering over the links, and opens a submenu with an accordion.
14) Mootools Unlimited Drop Menu
15) Creating an Outlook Navigation Bar- Using the ListView and Accordion Controls
16) Simple CSS vertical menu Digg-like- This tutorial explains how to implement a simple vertical menu digg-like using CSS and javascript to show/hide sub-menu.
17) Drop down menu with Prototype- A unique drop down navigation that recursively applies a function to an li that toggles the visibility of a nested ul element.
18) Drop down menu with nested submenus- Using CSS and a little JavaScript
19) Drop down menu with jquery- A drop down animated menu example made with jquery
20) jdMenu Hierarchical Menu- The jdMenu plugin for jQuery provides a clean, simple and elegant solution for creating hierarchical drop down menus for websites to web applications.
21) jQuery plugin: Treeview- Lightweight and flexible transformation of an unordered list into an expandable and collapsable tree, great for unobtrusive navigation enhancements.
22) Drop Down menu
24) Accordion Menu script- This example illustrates how you would add a collapsible sub level.
25) Complex Dynamic Lists- Using an unordered list, to display a hierarchical structure of a complexity that would be very hard to achieve with dynamic select boxes.
26) Chrome CSS Drop Down Menu- Chrome Menu is a CSS and JavaScript hybrid drop down menu. It’s easy to configure and search engine friendly.
Drop Down Menu Tutorials
CSS Express Drop-Down Menus- CSS Express menus should only be used in a horizontal orientation with a single drop-down level.
Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns- An accessible, light weight (just 12 lines of JavaScript), with great compatibility and can have multiple-levels.
Drop Down Menu Generator
Izzymenu- With an impressive Ajax interface, you can build your own CSS drop down DHTML sub-menu in minutes without writing a single line of code.
Tags: CSS, Javascript, Menu, navigation menu
Nice tutorial here, I use Dreamweaver for web design and in My opinion, sub categories navigation is not so good looking in vertical menu. But I like them as drop down in horizontal navigation. Off course who like opening a door and finding one more door in it? :-)
People are still using multilevel drop down menus?
Sweet post! An option for every use, i was just looking at these at work today. These are a pain in the @ss to handcode! Thanks for the linkage
sweet set! now to show off mine:
http://www.hkturnaround.com
built using scriptaculous/prototype. Thought i’d spice things up a bit!
Great solutions…I find the 2nd level tabs don’t work well, since IE6 doesn’t like punching out of the parent’s container.
thanks, I was looking for drop down menu and I found this list :)
Drop downs are old school.
Please don’t use multi-level drop downs. They are html evil incarnate! If you find yourself in a situation where you have no choice, you took a wrong turn somewhere and need to go back and retrace your steps.
I should say that single level drop downs are ok and in many places a good design choice, just avoid taking them multi-level.
cool !!
realy gud menu.
thanks buddy.
Ajay Kamat
great thanks!
it’s very useful!
I worked for hours and hours and make nothing
thanks again!!!
Wanted to add my dropdown navigation tutorial, too: http://blog.masterplane.de/informationstechnik/programmierung/css/vertikale-aufklappnavigation
Greetings
very cool)) thanks so much!!!
what about accessibility (508) and JAWS reading submenu items? I can’t get the readers to “see” the submenus. I have run into this problem with no solution.
where are the files to download in “Mootools menu with accordion and effects”.
i have question for you !!!
can i put professional drop down menu in my blog site???
how can i get it ???
could you tell me please how to put drop down menu in my blog ???
thanks before
I do not know what to say really! These menus are truly awesome, and I never seen most of them.. thanks!
great list.
thanks
Very useful info. Thanks for sharing!
I’d like to add my 2 cents on multi-level drop-downs. I agree that in most cases they make a site too “busy.” However, they have their place and appeal to a certain audience (especially in b2b apps). For example, if you’ve ever been on the Dell Premier site, you know you would KILL for a multi-level nav menu so you don’t have to wait for their agonizingly slow pages to load.
I think the important thing is not to FORCE a user to use multi-level navigation. In other words, every item in the header menu should be clickable. The same wich each item in every level of the sub-menus. So if the user doesn’t want to deal with the menus, they can bypass them and be taken to a wizard-like page instead. This allows you to appeal to the type-A’s who will use the multi-menus as well as the slackers who want to be led by the hand.
Great list of menus. Thanks! :)
Great resource , thanks for menus !
I have downloaded your scriptaculous multi level dropdown menu and converted it for my website donsgarden.co.uk. It is working, but firebug reports:- “uncaught exception: script.aculo.us requires the Prototype JavaScript framework >= 1.6.0.3
Line 0″”
Safari reports an RJS error.
When I replace the prototype that I am using (1.6.0.1) to 1.6.0.3 the menu does not work. I developed the menu on a local copy using Mongrel, Ruby 1.8.7, Rails 2.3.4, Scriptaculous 1.8.3, Prototype 1.6.0.1. The javascripts came with the scriptaculous download. Firebug also does report an uncaught exception.
My website host server is using Ruby 1.8.6 and Rails 2.2.2.
Is there a reason that you know about for this error.
I solved my problem. What I did was to create a blank rails application and copy all the javascript files to my website overwriting those I downloaded with Scriptaculous. Bingo no more errors. The fact that my ISP server is usingh 2.2.2 and not 2.3.4 does not seem to matter.
its great 1
Appreciate, thank for the sharing
Thank you … this has me very helped.useful list
useful information for nav menu.
Thanks for sharing this tut..
simply good!!!!!!!!! my requirement s over
nice i like it..
Great list! Navigation menu are greatly important for usability purposes and creating a user-friendly website.