PowerMenu Creator             

[ Starting Work ] [ Editing Entries ] [ Save and Copy ] [ Opening Generated Text Files ] [ General Notes ]

Adding entries to a multi-level applet like PowerMenu (and ensuring that they all end up where you intended them to be) can be a painful process. PowerMenu Creator aims to remove that pain by allowing you to add entries graphically and move them around to produce the layout you need.

First a few definitions. PowerMenu supports up to four 'levels' of entries. The first level corresponds to the Caption parameters, the main entries on the applet that are always visible. The second, third and fourth levels correspond to the Entry parameters, the contents of the flyout menus.

PowerMenu Creator

Starting Work

After editing your web page to add the applet tag and HTML required to set colors and other aesthetic options (see Getting Started), start Creator and follow these steps.

  1. In the Base Directory dialog that first appears, type the full path to the directory containing your web page (or click the button and selected it from the Browse dialog). This directory is used to define relative URL links. Click OK.

  2. In the main window, click the Add Item button to add your first entry. The following dialog appears.

    Add Item dialog

  3. In the first field, type the text that should appear on the menu for this entry. If this entry will open a submenu, ignore the other two steps and click OK.

  4. If this entry acts as a link, move to the second field and enter the absolute or relative URL to the resource the entry should link to. For relative URLs, you can click the button beside the field to select a file and Creator will enter the relative path for you.

  5. If this entry acts as a link, you can enter a frame or window name to target in the third field. If you leave this field blank, the frame you set as your DefaultTarget will be used.

  6. After clicking OK in the Add Item dialog, you'll see a new entry in the list. Click Add Item to add further entries in the same way. New entries are always inserted after the entry currently selected, and at the same level. The first entry in the list must always be at the first level and Creator will ensure that it is.

  7. To move entries from one level to another, use the Right and Left buttons (Ctrl+RightArrow, Ctrl+LeftArrow). Creator indents and aligns entries to indicate which level they're on. In the screenshot at the top of the page, the applet will initially display Home, Products & Services, What's New? and Mailing List. When the mouse moves over Products & Services, a submenu will appear containing Individual Applets, Suites, The Archive and Windows Utilities. Moving the mouse to Suites displays a submenu containing About Suites and Suite Contents.

  8. To move entries up and down the list, use the Up/Down buttons (Ctrl+UpArrow, Ctrl+DownArrow). Creator will automatically remove indents if necessary to ensure that moved entries remain in a logical position.

  9. You can use the keyboard's up/down arrow keys to move through the list. When an entry is highlighted, its corresponding URL and Target are displayed in the fields to the right.

Editing Entries

 To change the text of an entry, select it and press Ctrl+E (or double-click the entry), type the required text into the dialog and click OK.

To delete the selected entry, click the Delete Item button or press Ctrl+Del. Creator automatically adjusts the layout afterwards, if necessary, to ensure a logical structure.

To change the URL or Target for the selected entry, just type into the fields to the right. Changes are stored as you type.

To change the Base Directory you selected in Step 1, choose Options | Set Base Directory. Note that the new base directory will only be applied to new items added to the menu. Creator does not adjust the paths to URLs for any entries you've already added.

Save and Copy

When you've set up the entries as you want them, Creator will create the required HTML. You can choose to have the output placed on the clipboard ready for pasting into your web page, or saved into a text file, or do both, using the Save and Copy buttons at the bottom of the window.

It's strongly recommended that you Save the output as a text file. This enables you to reload it into Creator, edit as required, and easily generate new HTML rather than starting again from scratch. Creator cannot load or read your web page! You can choose any location and filename for the generated text file.

After saving as a text file, you can open the file and copy the HTML parameters to the clipboard ready to paste into your page, or just use Creator's Copy button. Creator also adds two commented lines at the top of this text file. Do not change these lines or edit any part of the file - this may prevent Creator from reloading it in future.

Opening Generated Text Files

Start Creator and click OK to dismiss the Base Directory dialog. Choose File | Open (Ctrl+O) and locate a text file generated by Creator, or drag-and-drop a text file onto Creator. Provided the file has not been edited, Creator will read its contents and display the structure and you can edit/add/delete items as necessary.

The base directory used was stored in the file and is reapplied when the file is opened.

Click the Save button to save the results. Creator always displays a Save As dialog - there's no danger of overwriting your original file unless you actively select it in the Save As dialog and okay the overwrite prompt.

General Notes

  • Creator will always prompt you to save a structure that you've changed if there's a danger of losing it (eg. choosing New or Open from the File menu, or closing the program).

  • Creator only generates the HTML for PowerMenu's Caption, Entry, URL and Target parameters. It doesn't generate a complete applet tag. The generated code must be pasted somewhere (anywhere) between PowerMenu's <APPLET ...> and </APPLET> tags.

  • Creator does its best to ensure that the structure you see in the list is the structure you get in the applet, and that the structure is logical. This means that if you move a third or fourth level entry up or down the list, it may be moved to the second or third level on the way (Creator doesn't know where you intend to put it - it only knows where it is!). When the vertical location is right, use the Left/Right buttons to set the level you want.





























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