Using MX2004 Templates for the MiniMenu system
The MiniMenus menu system works with Dreamweaver MX Templates. This help file will demonstrate how to create a Template and add a MiniMenu to it as well as make any edits.
Dreamweaver Templates go beyond the scope of this help file. You may also want to read the help files included in Dreamweaver for more on Templates by pressing F1 in the Dreamweaver interface.
Step 1 - Creating the Template
In Dreamweaver MX go to File > New. From the dialog, that appears select "Basic Page" from the first column and "HTML template" from the column on the right. Click the "Create" button and a new template file will be created.
Save the new Template.
Dreamweaver may display a dialog box indicating that there are no editable regions. Disregard this notice and click OK.
The new template has been created and stored in the Templates folder of your site.
Step 2 - creating the MiniMenu
Launch the MiniMenus interface, make your selections and press the OK button. The MiniMenus menu system will be inserted into your new template. Save the Template. Dreamweaver may display a dialog box again indicating that there are no editable regions. Disregard this notice and click OK.
Note: If you are using the persistent button option make button number 1 the persistent button.
That's all there is to creating a Template based MiniMenus system. You can now add the rest of your content, create editable areas and add your content to your new Template.
Setting the Persistent buttons
The persistent button option of the MiniMenus is normally handled individually on each page by the "persistent' buttons src being set to its over state. The return of the persistent button is controlled by the image inside of the closer layer.
In order to have each page function independently from the template code we must force the correct menu button for the particular page to the "over" state and change the "return' on the closer layer image.
If you are using the persistent button option you will need to add a simple function to each page that will set the proper button to its over state.
Step 1 - Making the closer Layer an editable region
The closer Layer
In the Layers Panel of the Template ( .dwt file ) select the "minidrop0" layer.
Then go to Insert > Template Objects > Editable Region
Name your editable region in the text field and click OK.
The minidrop0 layer is now an editable region and can be changed in all of the pages made from the Template.
Step 2 - Setting the "return" of the persistent button
The closer Layer ( minidrop0 ) contains an image. This image has the MiniMenus behavior applied to it. Below is a snippet of this code. The red number is the button number that the menu will return to when the sub layers are moused off. The example below will return the number 1 button to the over state.
onMouseOver="Lvl_MiniMenuS('minidrop0',0);Lvl_swapMini('minibut0','0','1')"
This is all you need to change to make any particular button return to its over state becoming the persistent button.
Step 3 - Setting the Persistent Button src
If you are using a persistent button for your pages you will need to add a piece of code to each new page to set the persistent button. Normally this is determined from the MiniMenus interface but since we are using a Template this step must be done if you are using a persistent button.
In the Template you should have set the persistent button as button 1 so the page that uses button number one as the persistent button does not need the snippet below. Every other page will however.
Here is what is happening here. The Template file ( the .dwt ) has been configured to have button number 1 as the persistent button so any page made from this template will have, by default, button number 1 as the default or persistent button. What we are doing here is forcing the buttons src to change to the proper button as the page loads with a javascript snippet.
We will need to change button number 1 "back" to its norm state and change the correct button for the page we are working on to its over state.
This piece of code will need its own editable region. You can name the region whatever you like, here we have named it "minipersist". We have also placed this editable region at the very end of the document just above the ending </body> tag.
<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="minipersist" -->
<script type="text/javascript">
MM_findObj('minibut1').src='mm_assets/style3/h/mmenu1.gif';
MM_findObj('minibut2').src='mm_assets/style3/h/mmenu2_over.gif';
</script>
<!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
</body>
This example is for the page that will have button number 2 as the persistent button.
There are 2 lines of code in this snippet. The 1st line sets button 1 to its norm state and the 2nd one sets the current persistent button for the page you are applying to its over state. The items in blue are the portions that will be unique for each page.
The 1st item ( 'minibut1' and 'minibut2' ) are the names of the buttons. The 2nd portion is the path to these buttons images and the image name itself.
The path to the image is easy to find by looking at the source code of the page you are working on for any of the main button images. The path itself for this example looks like this: mm_assets/style3/h/ and then followed by the image name mmenu1.gif and mmenu2_over.gif.
In summary
That's all that needs to be done to make the MiniMenus work with MX Templates. When making changes to the links on the main buttons or the sub menus the links will update correctly when updating your pages after saving the Template file.
