Multilevel Drop Down Navigation Menus: Examples and Tutorials
- By Noupe Editorial Team
- Posted in CSS, Javascript
- 104 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.
Siddharth, 17 April 2008
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? :-)
jeremy, 17 April 2008
People are still using multilevel drop down menus?
Gunner Si, 17 April 2008
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
chris, 18 April 2008
sweet set! now to show off mine:
http://www.hkturnaround.com
built using scriptaculous/prototype. Thought i’d spice things up a bit!
Anthony Ettinger, 18 April 2008
Great solutions…I find the 2nd level tabs don’t work well, since IE6 doesn’t like punching out of the parent’s container.
knurów, 23 April 2008
thanks, I was looking for drop down menu and I found this list :)
Acronyms, 27 April 2008
Drop downs are old school.
C, 28 April 2008
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.
D, 23 April 2011
Mr.C. You are right. After having incorporating HVMenu, now I am finding it as a trouble. When I work with CSS for printing purpose, the multilevel HVMenu gives me headache as it is not hiding. Only when I want to overcome the problem, I found your comment!. How exactly it is true. As you said, now I am retracing my steps by wasting a lot of time.
C, 28 April 2008
I should say that single level drop downs are ok and in many places a good design choice, just avoid taking them multi-level.
Ajay kamat, 03 May 2008
cool !!
realy gud menu.
thanks buddy.
Ajay Kamat
Baroda Design, 23 February 2012
This is really awesome. very usefull one.. great work
M.S. Babaei, 11 May 2008
great thanks!
it’s very useful!
I worked for hours and hours and make nothing
thanks again!!!
.wired, 30 May 2008
Wanted to add my dropdown navigation tutorial, too: http://blog.masterplane.de/informationstechnik/programmierung/css/vertikale-aufklappnavigation
Greetings
zipper, 05 June 2008
very cool)) thanks so much!!!
Chris, 24 June 2008
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.
Subhash, 18 July 2008
where are the files to download in “Mootools menu with accordion and effects”.
kacupeng, 22 July 2008
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
Ahmad, 08 October 2008
I do not know what to say really! These menus are truly awesome, and I never seen most of them.. thanks!
Eric, 10 November 2008
great list.
thanks
Mark, 12 November 2008
Very useful info. Thanks for sharing!
Ixalmida, 27 October 2009
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.
Atle, 29 November 2009
Great list of menus. Thanks! :)
feald, 04 December 2009
Great resource , thanks for menus !
Don, 04 December 2009
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.
Don, 08 December 2009
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.
Archit Shah, 20 December 2009
its great 1
Pisit, 03 January 2010
Appreciate, thank for the sharing
selva comments, 05 January 2010
Thank you … this has me very helped.useful list
Mathan, 11 January 2010
useful information for nav menu.
Thanks for sharing this tut..
sabari, 16 January 2010
simply good!!!!!!!!! my requirement s over
ajans, 24 January 2010
nice i like it..
Mature singles dating, 26 January 2010
Great list! Navigation menu are greatly important for usability purposes and creating a user-friendly website.
Eni, 27 February 2010
I’m still trying…
What a nice view, by adding this dropdown menu to my blog…
Ali, 27 February 2010
Good recommendation, Many dropdown menu tutorial on sites… but yours are the best
John, 04 March 2010
Great Post…
Vijendra Mishra, 05 March 2010
Nice Post with great resources… thanks
Marilee Lindenberg, 05 March 2010
Dreamweaver has been lately my personal goto application for years. I truly don’t know what I would undoubtedly do without having it. There were moments when I initially started out making use of the program, and I thought it was way too complicated. Now I fly around it, and it has become a strong asset in my personal tool box. Nonetheless thanks for the article.
Giri, 20 March 2010
Very useful.Good work
Heilo, 12 April 2010
Sweet. Found what I was looking for :)
martin, 15 April 2010
hai ur posting is very useful for us
avosoft, 18 April 2010
just what i needed. thanks
Sitthykun, 20 April 2010
cool ….
Timothy Zhu, 17 May 2010
Very nice selection of drop down nav menus. One of them happens to be exactly what I’m looking for. Thanks!
extendstudio, 18 May 2010
You can see more samples on horizontal or vertical drop down menu for Creative DW Menus which is a Dreamweaver extension. Here are the samples extendstudio.com/creative-dw-menus-pack/samples.html
Rana Mukherjee, 18 May 2010
you can see drop down menu width background image example.
yinka, 18 May 2010
Thanks. This has saved me a lot of work.
Student Brands, 22 May 2010
Thanks for the great information. I hope to be back soon. I have book marked it keep posting. Thanks again.
xtin, 24 May 2010
very nice info
rateeeh, 28 May 2010
very helping, thank you…
Web graphic designer, kanpur web designer, logo design india, 01 June 2010
wow graet meneu cllaetion
polskie biuro ksiegowe, 05 June 2010
wow! everything in one place – great share! thanks my friend :)
Mehmet demiray, 06 June 2010
Nice menus thanks(:
Emin, 07 June 2010
Hi. I need number 8 but
I want to one more
Can you help me.
Bineet chaubey, 09 June 2010
really nice tutorial .but i can not find such type menu those i want
Tech & IT News India, 18 June 2010
Thank you for a useful info, have a good resource in your blog.
zinmarwin, 20 June 2010
Thanks you for your share.
prem, 23 June 2010
Great!
Thanks
Hannah, 25 July 2010
these are some awesome menu tutorials. Thanks for sharing.
Renae, 01 September 2010
Hi i love the content! However, the code/info for #8 slide-down menu doesn’t work. It pulls up a page with weird info. Thanks!
cihip, 06 September 2010
Thanks you for your share..
Subbu, 07 September 2010
Good collection..nice effort..Do you know of pure css menu which is expandable?
Ritz Infotek, 12 September 2010
Awsome collections! I would like implement the above menu so the submenu will go up instead of down. Any idea how to do this.
Vinayak, 19 October 2010
Hey thanks!!!
very good to c such awesome menus!!!
tecnico, 23 November 2010
Thank for this article, is very util for my new project.
Biju Subhash, 06 December 2010
nice collections…
thank you for sharing…
here a link for another jQuery menu:
http://www.bijusubhash.com/blog/redbrown-drop-down-menu-using-jquery-and-css
steff, 29 December 2010
very nice collection, but i was wondering if the horizontal menus can be converted to vertical menus? i need this for my oscommerce! any idea?
trxBox, 10 January 2011
Very useful.Good work
BrockN, 25 January 2011
I have written a jQuery plugin that supports infinite level of unordered lists. It is easy to implement, and has been tested in Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.
John Chan, 28 January 2011
Please help!!!
I used the menu (8) described but the hyper-link inside the list items does not go to anywhere. Why? The link has no respond when I clicked. How to enable the link?
8 ) Slide down menu- A slide menu based on an unordered list ().
Danismanlik, 02 February 2011
thnks for share is very util for my new project.
Henning Larsen, 13 February 2011
Cool site and lots of nice menus
Ginoa Andrean, 21 February 2011
nice information. the explanation is very clear with clear picture too. great!
Megha shah, 22 February 2011
Hey thanks for all dis information…
it will be so usefull 2 me….
Som, 05 April 2011
Nice tutorial .I need to make a drop down menu for my Website and your tutorial is really nice . Thanks a lot for the support.
cin takvimi, 05 April 2011
I also believe thus, perfectly composed post! .
Nithu, 19 May 2011
Great collections and very useful.
LANDOIS, 15 June 2011
Very nice.
tommy, 04 July 2011
Thanks for the menus. I love them, especially the second one.
LOGANATHAN, 19 August 2011
Thank you the menu The explanation is very clear with clear picture too, and very use full
Luke Tupas, 23 September 2011
nice!!!
Ankur, 18 October 2011
if you want to create a dropdown menu in html with red theme,
see this, on here you can also download source code:
http://www.authorcode.com/dropdown-menu-in-html/
Andy, 05 November 2011
Very cool! Thank you very much!!!
akshay, 24 November 2011
thank you.. very usefull one.. great work
Dheeraj Bansal, 07 December 2011
This is really awesome. hmm trying to do something new in html navigation menu
sharavanakkumar, 17 January 2012
simply superb !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Polly, 03 February 2012
Hi – I am trying to find a nice drop down for my site – My site covers many cities; I would like to have a drop down menu for the cities on my site – so it would be easier to view the information – would this site help me? thanks
Udhaya47, 11 February 2012
Nice post..Thanks a lot….
sumit, 13 April 2012
i was searching for drop down menu code in html. I found this tutorial. Very good explanation. Please tell me the code also to create drop down menu.
sumit, 13 April 2012
I need this urgently. Please help.
Shilpi, 16 April 2012
Awesome……
Kathirason, 24 May 2012
great collections.. but i need ajax based menu..
ayush, 01 June 2012
i m web developer. i want use of java script in every type. so please give me some notes for java script
thanks.
keshav singh, 02 June 2012
gr8 collection man thank you for sharing , this is very useful for me
Michael, 11 June 2012
This is really nice one
Alexander, 28 June 2012
The Drop Down Menu Generator is great.
Many thanks
Bedemand, 28 June 2012
Thanks for this great list. I was looking all around the web for this.
Panagiotis, 24 August 2012
This is a very nice post. Thanks for sharing!
PA
Grafiker, 30 October 2012
Awesome collection – thanks!
Geek, 21 November 2012
Nice!
Medha, 17 December 2012
I am looking for a selectable dropdown with subcategories. I need to pull the subcategories id into the select box.
How do i do?
Frankie, 06 March 2013
I love your website tutorial its very educate. It gets even better as you give options
to download them. Regards Frankie
rakesh, 25 March 2013
I love your website tutorial its very educate. It gets even better as you give options
Pratik, 25 March 2013
nice……….