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MenuMachine Review by: Gary Coyne Provides: Fast development of drop down menus in
Adobe GoLive About the only product add-on I can think of that has generated as much excitement as MenuMachine was KPT, or Kai's Power Tools for Adobe Photoshop. And like KPT, the excitement is well deserved. With version 5 of Adobe GoLive, the ability to extend the abilities and features of the base program was introduced using the provided SDK (Software Development Kit) tools. While there have been many excellent Actions and Extension Modules created for Adobe GoLive via the SDK (Software Development Kit) provided free with GoLive, few have generated as much excitement as Rob Keniger has with MenuMachine. Some of the other SDK results can be seen at ActionsNext, and at the Adobe Exchange. MenuMachine can only be used with the recently released version 6. What MenuMachine does, and all it does, is create drop-down menus for web sites. But, what it does is allow them to be created easier than could have ever been imagined, and provide a robust environment for variations. You've seen these types of menus on numerous web sites. They may look like a standard menu, but when you drag your mouse over some of the menu selections, the options continue.
What makes MenuMachine unique is that not only does it allow you to make such a menu easily and quickly (the above took me less than 5 minutes--it was done for speed, not beauty), but it also provides a phenominal amount of power and variations. To use MenuMachine, one either drags a MenuMachine object form the Objects palette in GoLive to the page or (because MenuMachine really, really wants to be the last item on a page) you can select MenuMachine from the Special menu and let it insert the starting code in the proper place on the page. If you have items already on the page, this is a good idea. Other than location, the only other restrictions are that MenuMachine cannot be placed within a Table, Floating Box, or a <div> tag. However, as MenuMachine is a Floating Box, it can be displayed ANYWHERE on the page you want. As in all aspects of Adobe GoLive, one makes alterations of the selected item(s) in the Inspector palette. The default view of MenuMachine is the Edit palette:
Above is what the Edit palette looks like for the menu shown above. Looking at this one can easily see how "hackable" this program is. From each selected item one can add new items at that level or add submenus. When you add a new selection, it has the name of its "parent." One then can rename this item in the "Menu Text" box. From here one can Point & Shoot links and/or add images and their rollover images. Also, one can place an image on the menu with no purpose but to have an image located in the menu. On the bottom of the palette, one can set the menu color and it's over (color) state and the font color and the fonts over (color) state. This allows one to have rollovers with text and save on the downloading times that may appear with graphics on slow modems. If you do choose to use graphics though, MenuMachine will tell the browser to pre-load the graphics for you. The Format palette provides options for how the text appears:
One can have sub-menus appear different from the original menus and whether there are borders between the menu selections (and color). You can set the font and the size and/or whether the font appears on the left, middle, or right side of the menus as well as padding. The final pleasures are in the Options palette:
Here, one can select whether the menu will have horizontal or vertical orientation, whether the sub-menus will appear with a simple rollover or via a click, and how long the menus will linger after moving the mouse away. As seen, there are options for Menu Overlap, whether there will be an arrow to help the viewer be aware there may be sub-menus and if the menu appears on the right side of the screen, to have the sub-menu's appear on the left side rather than the right side (and out of view). But also, since these are floating windows, your menu can appear on the left, center, or right side of the screen, and you can also choose whether they maintain their position regardless of what the viewer is doing. Beyond that, one is only limited by their knowledge and abilities. A superb collection of MenuMachine samples can be seen at the Denijs Design site created by Beate De Nijs. I have only one complaint and it has nothing to do with the program: The PDF manual (which is otherwise fine) tells you on page 18 (out of 23) that you cannot see the results of your work unless you SAVE your page, and it is best that you create your work within a site instead of a random test page without a site. This is important information that should be on the first page. But then again, even I waited until now to let you know. MenuMachine will pay for itself on its first use. Buy it. 
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